of a dead artist. Ranger's artistic legacy has been problematic. Once considered the leader of the 'Tonal School', his reputation declined precipitously in the 1930s. That he was heavily influenced by the Hague School, the Barbizon School and the Venetian Renaissance helped to account for some of his most vibrant painterly characteristics, yet it also marked Ranger's work as among the most conservative examples of the Tonalist movement. The Tonalism of Old Lyme came to be viewed as anachronistic, and Ranger's stock suffered as a result. Recent reassessment has restored credit to Ranger, as "an artist whose influence is not generally understood and whose work has been neglected far too long." In his best landscapes there is "an emotion visible in the molten forces bubbling up from his surfaces in thick impastos, luscious and rich with jewel-like tone, a painterly approximation of the underlying powers constantly transforming the natural world." A successful businessman, Ranger made a bequest to the National Academy of Design, allocating between $250,000 and $400,000. Ranger's gift allowed the National Collection, now the Smithsonian American Art Museum, to purchase major works by American artists. Gallery See also Tonalism California Tonalism American Impressionism Pictorialism Barbizon school Paul Dougherty (artist) American Barbizon school References Attribution Sources Riback, Estelle, The Intimate Landscape: A New Look at the Origins of the American Barbizon Movement, Lost Coast Press, Ft. Bragg, California, 2004 Riback, Estelle, Modulator of Harmonious Color, Lost Coast Press, Ft. Bragg, California, 2000 Cleveland, David A. A History of American Tonalism: 1880-1920, Hudson Hills Press, Manchester, Vermont, 2010 Rosenfeld, Daniel & Workman, Robert G., The Spirit of Barbizon: France and America, Art Museum Association of America, San Francisco, California, 1986 Corn, Wanda M., The Color of Mood: American Tonalism, 1880–1910, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, 1972 Cleveland, David, Intimate Landscapes: Charles Warren Eaton and the Tonalist Movement in American Art, 1880–1920, Groton School, 2004 Becker, Jack, Henry Ward Ranger and the Humanized Landscape, Lyme Historical Society, 1999, Foreword by Jeffrey Anderson Bermingham, Peter, American Art in the Barbizon Mood. London and Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976. Anderson, Jeffrey, The American Barbizon, Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, 1982 Dougherty, Paul, "The Art of Henry Ward Ranger", Brush and Pencil, Vol. XVI, No. 2, August 1905 External links antiques and the arts online Mattatuck Museum Arts & History Center Florence Griswold Museum 1858 births 1916 deaths 19th-century American painters