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Louis Ritman was born in Kaments-Podolski, Russia in 1889. In 1903 he immigrated to Chicago and at age seventeen began working to help support his family (Ritman one of six children) by painting letters for a sign company. He was encouraged to enroll in art classes at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. After traveling around the United States he traveled to Paris and stayed in France for 20 years. In 1930, he returneed to Chicago and began teaching at The Art Institute of Chicago where he remained until retirement in 1960.

Source: Des Moines Art Center Work of the Month, July 1997


Exhibition History"From Body to Being: Reflections on the Human Image," Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, Feb. 1 - May 4, 1997
Published ReferencesLOUIS RITMAN, AMERICAN PAINTER, text by Nicole de Fleur, pub. by The Louis Ritman Estate in association with Times Publishing Company, Random Lake, Wisconsin, color ill. p. 10, no date given;

AMERICAN IMPRESSIONISM by William H. Gerdts, published by Abbeville Press, New York, black and white repro. p. 273, fig. no. 358;
DimensionsOverall: 36 1/2 × 36 1/2 in. (92.7 × 92.7 cm)
Accession Number 1941.4
Classificationspainting
CopyrightPublic Domain
SignedL. Ritman 1915 (l,r oil paint)
ProvenanceArtist, France. Collection of J.S. and Florence L. Carpenter, Des Moines [acquired by 1939]; Des Moines Art Center [gift of Florence L. Carpenter, 1941]
Nude, Study No. 1
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
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Morris Louis
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Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ted Kurahara
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Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
attributed to
John Singer Sargent
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Louis Bouché
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Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Leon Kroll
1918
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Leon Kroll
1927
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Farrar Wilson
1958