Untitled

1904–1909

Boys' High School: drafting and museums

At Brooklyn's Boys' High School Ray gains a solid grounding in drafting and basic art techniques; at the same time he educates himself with frequent visits to local art museums.

1909

Turning down an architecture scholarship

After graduating, Ray is offered a scholarship to study architecture but chooses to pursue a career as an artist; his parents are disappointed, yet agree to rearrange the family's modest living quarters so that his room can become his studio.

1909–1913

Four years in a studio room at home

For the next four years Ray stays in the family home and works steadily towards becoming a professional painter, earning money as a commercial artist and technical illustrator at several Manhattan companies. He is an avid admirer of the avant-garde — the European modernists he sees at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 gallery and the Ashcan School — but cannot yet integrate it into his own work, and the art classes he attends sporadically at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League are of little benefit.

15 avril 1910

Took part in: 1910 United States Census