Sally Ryan

• Name — Sally Ryan • Birth Name — Sarah Tack Ryan • Born — July 13, 1916 • Birthplace — New York City, New York • Died — 29 June 1968 • Place of death — London, England • Occupation — Artist • Relatives — Allan A. Ryan Jr. (brother) Thomas Fortune Ryan (grandfather) Ida Mary Barry Ryan (grandmother)

Sally Ryan was born in New York City, the daughter of Allan Aloysius Ryan (1880–1940) and Sarah Tack Ryan. She was the granddaughter of Thomas Fortune Ryan, a successful Irish-American entrepreneur. Allan A. Ryan, Jr. was her elder brother. Fortune Ryan had commissioned a portrait bust of himself by Auguste Rodin, now in the Tate collection in London. Sally Ryan's went to school in Montreal and her artistic career began in 1933, where she exhibited her first sculpture at the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in Toronto. The following year she went on to study with the sculptor Jean Camus in Paris, where she achieved an 'honourable mention' at the annual Salon. She exhibited work at The Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1935. Ryan was an associate of the poet Ralph Gustafson and sculptor Jacob Epstein. Epstein made a portrait bust of Ryan, who for a brief time became his, only, pupil. Ryan would later purchase several important works by Epstein. Aged twenty, Ryan had a successful solo show at the Cooling Gallery which included her portrait busts of Ellen Ballon, Paul Robeson and Arturo Toscanini. After four years in London, Ryan returned to the United States in 1938. Dividing her time between Connecticut and London, her work featured in exhibitions in both Europe and the United States. In 1940, Ryan's work was included in Philadelphia's International Sculpture Exhibition, prior to her second solo show in New York the following autumn. Ryan used much of the inheritance she received from her grandfather to build a wide-ranging art collection, alongside her life-long friend, Kathleen Garman. Ryan died of cancer of the throat (squamous cell epithelioma of the larynx) in 1968 while staying at The Dorchester in London. Variously described as "aloof", "private" and androgynous in appearance, Ryan was gay and lived with another women, who became the chief beneficiary of her will. She also bequeathed $50,000 and her art collection to Kathleen Garman to establish the Garman-Ryan collection, now housed at The New Art Gallery Walsall. As well as several works by Ryan, the collection also contains many works by Jacob Epstein, Garman's husband.

These four works by Ryan are part of the Garman-Ryan collection at The New Art Gallery Walsall. • Illustration — Mother and Child • Illustration — Nathaniel • Illustration — Head of Valentina • Illustration — The Martinique, (1934)