Born in Continental, Arizona, Jack Van Ryder was a studio painter of cowboy, Indian and ranch life in Arizona, described in his early years by writers Peggy and Harold Samuels as "an illiterate Arizona wrangler."

In his youth, he went to Montana with a shipment of Mexican steers and remained as a cowboy for many years, but his interest in art led to his becoming a pupil of Charles Russell in Great Falls. He also learned to read and write and worked in the movies as an extra and painted a relief map of California.

In later years and before 1940, he settled in the Tucson area as a rancher and painter of western subjects, and he also did illustration for Literary Digest, which earned him membership in the Society o...