Born in Morristown, New Jersey, Margery Austen Ryerson was a painter, etcher, lithographer, and watercolorist. After graduating from Vassar College, she studied with Robert Henri at the Art Students League in New York, and with Charles Webster Hawthorne at the Cape Cod School of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Ryerson received many portrait commissions throughout her career. She was a member of the National Academy of Design and other professional organizations; her work is held in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Smithsonian, Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.