Magic realism
Ruth Ray was born in 1919 into a sophisticated New York City household. Her mother was an early feminist, a managing editor of Vogue, and a prolific author of self-help books. Ray attended Swarthmore College, Barnard College, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Art Students League of New York. In 1948, she married and established a home in Darien, Connecticut. She had a successful career as a commercial artist and portraitist; among her most famous portraits was the golfer Sam Snead. However, her passion was an idiosyncratic form of Magic realism inspired by her love of horses, New England farm life, and the Maine seacoast.