Painter. He is considered one of America's most original artists, best known for his brooding, nocturnal land and seascapes. Most of his paintings are allegories, based on stories from the Bible, Shakespeare, and other literary sources, and filtered through his dreamlike imagination. His late style approaches abstract art in its use of simplified forms. His works include "Jonah", "The Flying Dutchman", "Toilers of the Sea", "Moonlight Marine", "Moonlit Cove", and "The Race Track, or Death on a Pale Horse". Ryder was born and raised in the whaling town of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and the sea would always be a favorite setting for him. In 1867 he settled in New York City and between 1870 and 1875 took classes at the National Academy of Design. A loner by temperament, he never married and painted in seclusion, oblivious to art world trends and influences. His reputation as an eccentric is best applied to his unconventional creative methods. Ryder would work sporadically on a canvas for several years, often painting over collected dust, adding layers of pigment and varnish without allowing them to dry properly, and applying such unsuitable substances as wax and candle grease. As a result many of his estimated 160 paintings have deteriorated beyond repair - colors faded, details gone, surfaces heavily cracked. This began to happen during Ryder's lifetime, and he seemed unfazed about it. "When a thing has the elements of beauty from the beginning, it cannot be destroyed", he said. "Take the Venus de Milo. Ages and men have ravaged it, its arms and nose have been knocked off, but it still remains a thing of beauty because beauty was with it from the beginning". The poor condition of his surviving artwork has made Ryder one of the most forged of American painters, but the intensity of his vision remains evident with each brushstroke and can hardly be duplicated.