Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 54

DECATUR SUNDAY HERALD AND REVIEW Decatur, Illinois, Sunday, October 14. 1951. Herbert Ryman, Formerly of Decatur, Is Artist for Movie Industry 54 PICTURES Circus Life Is Subject Choice It's back to the big top this winter for Herbert Ryman, Decatur-born artist who now lives and works in California. Mr. Ryman will go the Sarasota, winter quarters of Ringling Bailey circus to complete a series of paintings on circus' life begun over a year ago.

When finished, Mr. Ryman's paintings w-ill go to New York and next spring will be exhibited there at the time of the circus' opening in Madison Square Garden. PRIMARILY an artist for the motion picture industry, Mr. Ryman has been fearful that the circus is a vanishing American institution and he wanted to get some of its typical scenes down on canvas before it vanishes altogether. So in the spring of last year the artist took a leave of absence from his 20th Century-Fox studio job to travel with the circus.

Ke slept on the show train, ate with the circus people, helped with some of the work and sketched. Because he felt that posed pictures lacked the naturalness he was seeking, Mr. Ryman asked no one to stop work to pose but drew rapid sketches of circus activity which he later turned into over 100 water color pictures. These he took with him back to his San Fernando valley home where further work converted them into some 30 full-sized oil paintings. MR.

RYMAN, the son of Cora B. Ryman, former Macon county school superintendent, studied art at Millikin university and then went on to the Chicago art institute, where he completed the equivalent of four years' training rill vkMt ib --C touches on a painting in his Van Nuys, Herbert Ryman, Decatur man who has made good in the art world, puts the finishing studio, where lie does his him work. 9 mmm which will be on exhibit in New York this "Mule Tent," an oil painting, is one of a series of circus paintings by Herbert Ryman in three years and graduated with, high honors, the youngest in his! class of 90. I scenes, architectural details and In the summer of 1932, shortly people, made quite a sizable bun- spring, just before circus season. 4 after his graduation, he joined hisdle for him to bring home.

5 During part of his trip the war 4 sister, Lucille Ryman, in Pasadena, and began painting scenery for the community playhouse where she was studying drama. By December of that year his talent had been recognized by the movie industry and he was appointed scenic designer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Some of his first film set designs were for "The White Sister," which starred Helen Hayes. "Turn About." "The Late Christopher Bean," "Tale of Two Cities," "The Good Earth," and "Romeo and Juliet." His work on "The Good Earth" created in Mr. Ryman a desire to see something of the world, par ilia ticularly the Orient, and so follow ing completion of his work on 'Romeo and Juliet" his studio sent him abroad for 15 months of travel during which he was to study the architecture, costumes and customs of Europe and the Far East and make sketches that would be useful in later movie set drawings.

HE TOl'RED Europe, China, Mongolia, Siam. French Indo-China and Japan, doing a great deal of his traveling by foot so that he could get a better look at the coun between China and Japan did not hinder him and he was able to settle down to his rice, fish and dried octopus dinners without worrying about anything but indigestion. He was. he told, harassed by officials at some places and not allowed to sketch, but the handicap didn't bother him seriously. He returned to the United States finally with a collection of between 200 and 300 watercolors and drawings, many of which were exhibited at the McBeth Galleries in New York.

IN THE FALL of 1937 Mr. Ryman returned to Decatur to spend several weeks with his mother, who was still a Decatur resident at that time, and to work some on finishing rough sketches made during his world tour. He then went back to Hollywood to plunge into-set designing for "Marie Antoinette." In 1939 Mr. Ryman joined the organization of Walt Disney and worked on such films as "Pinoc-chio," "Dumbo," "Fantasia" and "The Reluctant Dragon," and in the late summer of 1941 he was once again visiting strange lands, this time touring South America with other artists in the Disney troupe. During World War II Mr.

Ryman turned his talents to work on basic training and indoctrination films for the armed services, but at the end of the war he joined Twentieth Century Fox studios for a special piece of work requiring a good knowledge of the Orient. "THE BLACK ROSE" was the film which took Herbert Ryman to the Fox studios. Since joining that company he has managed to spend six days a week on his film work and still do portrait work on Sundays and other painting in the evenings. Mr. Ryman now is gaining a bigger and better reputation than ever.

In the past few months articles praising his work have appeared in "American Arist," a national art magazine, in several large newspapers and, principally, in "Good Housekeeping" magazine. His circus pictures and work on "The Black Rose" have excited the interest of the critics, and it is probable that following his New York showing he will take his place among the ranks of America's full-fledged, exhibiting artists. tryside. He was especially fascinated, he later reported, by Ang kor, the remains of an ancient ci vilization in the jungles of Cam bodia. French Indo-China.

r. 1 .1 il 'il 1 a. While traveling through China. Emmett Kelly, the original sad clown, painted by Mr. Rymuu during his stmt with poses beside a portrait of himself in costume thes circus.

enx, rne ivmg, is me mie 01 rnis porirau one or tne series or man paintings a of Ringling Bros, clown, Felix Adler. It is circus life. Mr. Ryman was especially anxious to see if the sets he bad designed for 'The Good Earth" were au thentic. He had used the observa tions of a troupe of artists sent by the studio to gather information for the picture, plus a little dash of his own imagination, in his draw ings for the picture, and was glad to discover that they were star- tlinely accurate.

He was especially pleased, he later told an interviewer, to find an almost exact duplicate of a treadmill pump he had designed in use on a small rice farm. HE FINISHED his trip with a walking tour through Japan and was amazed to find the people there friendly and cooperative despite the growing hostility of the Japanese military at that time. Unlike many artists, Mr. Ryman did not hestitate to use a camera I 1 vr- Ir? I IT i A 7, to catch some scene that wouldn't wait around for drawing. The photographs, added to sketches of landscapes, pastoral and village I) 1 1 i yx These Oriental warriors were drawn by Mr.

Ryman as one of his sketches for the movie, The Blade fiose," "Miss Ming Chu" is the name of this por- RymanJs more recent works, painted in 1951. trait of a Javanese dancer. It is one of Mr. He is a world traveler. This portrait of a little girl, "Fyfe Irvine," was painted by Mr.

Ryman in Ann He does portrait work on Sundays and other 1949. types of painting evenings. 3.