Lot 611235 email save

LANDSCAPE PAINTING RALPH ALBERT BLAKELOCK (1

Sign In to see what this sold for

OIL ON BOARD LANDSCAPE SIGNED Ralph Albert BLAKELOCK (1847-1919), 12" X 9" SIGHT IN GILT FRAME Birth place: NYC Death place: Adirondacks, NY Addresses: Worked in the Western U.S., 1869-72; NYC, from 1872; East Orange, NJ, late 1870s-early 1880s Profession: Landscape painter Studied: Self-taught. Exhibited: NAD, 1868-99; Brooklyn AA, 1874, 1879-80, 1884; Paris Expo., 1900 (prize); PAFA, 1902, 1903; Corcoran Gal., 1907-10, 1916, 1957; AIC, 1889, 1904, 1939. Member: ANA, 1913; NA, 1916. Work: CGA; Worcester AM; NGA; BM; MMA; WMAA; Montclair (NJ) Mus. Art; Hackley AG, Muskegon, MI; Cincinnati Mus.; Carnegie Inst.; Milwaukee Art Center; St. Louis AM; Oakland Mus., CA Comments: Visionary painter, best-known for his moody, moonlit forest interiors and Indian encampment scenes. He also produced a small number of floral still lifes; the rose was his favorite flower. An artist of the imagination, Blakelock used music (he was a pianist) to help him work out his ideas for painting. His painting technique was not an academic one, he built up layer after layer of thick paint, scraping away and adding more to create a rich, textured surface. At age 22 he went on a horseback trip through the West, where he lived among the Plains Indians, sketched along the Rockies and Sierra Nevada Mountains and painted scenes of coastal California, the redwoods, Oakland and San Francisco. He returned to NYC via Mexico. In 1899, unable to support his large family (his ninth child had just been born) with his meager sales, Blakelock suffered a breakdown and was committed to an asylum. He remained there for most of the rest of his life. When his work finally began receiving recognition after 1900, the demand for his paintings increased and many forgeries began to appear. Blakelock's daughter Marian was also a painter and sold paintings similar to his to a dealer who changed her signature to her father's; she was institutionalized in 1915. In 1916, while Ralph Blakelock was still institutionalized, his work was demanding as much as $20,000. He died in an asylum, impoverished. Because of the numerous forgeries, authentication of Blakelock paintings has remained problematic. The University of Nebraska published a catalogue raisonnÈ that classifies the Blakelock paintings into three categories according to degree of authenticity. Sources: WW17; Lloyd Goodrich, Ralph Albert Blakelock Centenary Exhibition, exhibition cat. (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1947); Abraham Davidson, Ralph Albert Blakelock; Campbell, New Hampshire Scenery, 13-14; Hughes, Artists in California, 53; P&H Samuels, 50; For Beauty and for Truth, 35.

HEAVILY VARNISHED

View Kimballs Auction and Estate Services next auction.

Similar lots up for auction