Henry Ward Ranger - Early Life

Early Life

Henry Ward Ranger was born on January 28, 1858. His mother was Martha Marie, and his father Ward Valencourt Ranger, and he was born in the rural western part of New York State, most likely in Geneseo. He grew up in Syracuse, where his father worked as a commercial photographer, but his father also had some artistic training and later taught drawing. As a young man he studied music, excelling on the piano and organ. Ranger grew up drawing and painting and received initial encouragement from his parents. After graduating from public school, he studied at Syracuse University for two years, where he studied art formally for the first time. While he worked in his father's photographic business, he began painting watercolor landscapes, which were said to have surprisingly free brush work for someone who had not yet studied abroad. He moved to New York City in 1878 where he saw works of the Barbizon School for the first time. He supported his art studies by reviewing music and theater for several New York newspapers. In 1883, he married an Helen Jennings, a divorced actress with a son.

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