Thomas Darby (Darby) Ryan Britain, New Zealand, France, 1864-1927
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About Darby Ryan
Ryan was born in London in 1864 and arrived in New Zealand about 1866. During the 1880s he was one of the outstanding rugby footballers in New Zealand, and also a talented cricketer. In the 1890s he studied at the Academie Julian, Paris for three years being a fellow student with C. F. Goldie. Working mainly in watercolours, he was well known for his Maori portraits, landscapes and seascapes. Ryan lived on the Great Barrier Island in the 1920's.
In our database, 130 works by Darby Ryan are listed as being offered for sale, the earliest in 1979, of which 82 (63%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $8,786 for Te Huriwa - A Tohunga of the Tuwharetoa Tribe sold by International Art Centre in March 2008. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2023. Works by Darby Ryan are held by the Museum Of New Zealand and Auckland Art Gallery.
Darby Ryan is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- Gil Docking, with additions by Michael Gunn covering 1970-90. Two Hundred Years of New Zealand Painting, David Bateman Ltd., New Zealand, 1990 Page 92
- McGahey, Kate. The Concise Dictionary of New Zealand Artists Painters Printmakers Sculptors, Gilt Edge Publishing, Wellington, New Zealand, 2000. Page 216
- The Find New Zealand Artists web site: a database of artist names that directs researchers to the rich resources found in New Zealand's libraries, art society exhibition histories and published sources.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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