Ralph Albert Blakelock

Ralph Albert Blakelock

Infobox Artist
bgcolour = #6495ED
name = Ralph Albert Blakelock



imagesize = 250px
caption = "Moonlight", 1885, the Brooklyn Museum,
New York City
birthname =
birthdate = birth date |1847|10|15|
location =
deathdate = death date and age |1919|8|9|1847|10|15|
deathplace =
nationality = American
field = Painting, Landscape art
training = Largely self taught
movement =
works =
patrons =
influenced by =
influenced =
awards =

Ralph Albert Blakelock (October 15, 1847 - August 9, 1919) was a romanticist painter from the United States.

Biography

Ralph Blakelock was born in New York City on October 15, 1847. In 1864, Blakelock entered the Free Academy of the City of New York (now known as the City College) with aspirations of becoming a physician. After his third term he opted to dismiss his formal education and left college. From 1869-71 he traveled west, extensively wandering far from known civilization and spending time among the American Indians. Largely self-taught as an artist, he began producing competent landscapes, depicting select views from his travels, as well as scenes of American Indian life. His works were exhibited in the National Academy of Design.

In 1877 Blakelock married Cora Rebecca Bailey; they had nine children. In art, Blakelock was a genius, yet, in business dealings and in monetary transactions he proved a failure. He found it difficult, if not crushing to maintain and support his wife and children. In desperation he found himself selling his paintings for extremely low prices, far beneath their known worth. In hopes of lifting his family from abject poverty, reportedly on the day his 9th child was born, Blakelock had offered a painting to a collector for $1000. The collector made a counter offer and after refusing the proposed sum Blakelock found himself in a bitter argument with his wife. After the domestic dispute, Blakelock returned to the patron and sold the painting for a much lesser sum. Defeated and frustrated, it is said he broke down and tore the cash into pieces. And so it was after such repeated failed business transactions that he began to suffer from extreme depression and eventually show symptoms of mental frailty. In 1899 he suffered a breakdown. Without the extensive medical knowledge available today, Blakelock was diagnosed with a mental disease, now thought to have been schizophrenia, and he was committed to a sanatorium. His depression manifested in schizophrenic delusions in which he believed himself immensely wealthy - perhaps a compensation for his long struggle to provide for his family. While confined he continued to paint, painting on the backs of cardboard and various supports, substituting bark and his own hair for brushes. He continued painting until his death at the age of 72 on Aug. 9, 1919.

Almost as soon as Blakelock went into the first psychiatric hospital, his works began to receive recognition. Within a few years the paintings he had once sold for next to nothing were resold for several thousand dollars.

The paintings

Blakelock's early landscapes have their genesis in the style of the Hudson River school of painters. In time, he developed a more subjective and intimate style. His favorite themes were those depicting the wilderness and solitude; evocative and emotional paintings of illuminated moments in nature, of moonlit landscapes and twilight hours and Indian camps in the solitude of nature. At first blush Blakelock's style is reminiscent of the French Barbizon School, yet, his technique was highly personal and through his individualistic style his paintings summoned the viewer into a luminous, almost other wordly realm. In the majority of his paintings, space is given depth by the use of light; moonlight most often. Along with his contemporary - Albert Pinkham Ryder - Ralph Albert Blakelock was one of the most individual American painters of his time.

One of his many paintings entitled "Moonlight" was sold at the highest price ever paid for the work of a living American artist at that time. Sadly, his rise in public notoriety along with the increase in his art sales never benefited his family or himself. By 1903 his works were being forged, so much so, that he remains today as "perhaps the most forged" artist in America. Such was the final ironic touch to one of the most tragic stories in American art.

Trivia

Blakelock is a key figure in the setting of Paul Auster's well-known novel "Moon Palace".

ources

* Glyn Vincent: "The Unknown Night: the madness and genius of R.A. Blakelock, an American painter", Grove Press 2002, ISBN 0-080211734-1.
* Norman Geske: "Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Genius", Questroyal Fine Art, Inc. 2005.

External links

* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/blakelock_ralph_albert.html Artcyclopedia]
* [http://www.figgeartmuseum.org/SiteDefault.aspx?PageId=83&nt=83 Figge Museum]
* [http://www.psupress.psu.edu/books/titles/0-271-01504-7.html review of biography by Davison]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ralph Albert Blakelock — Portraitfoto, circa 1870 Mondlicht, 1885 …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Blakelock, Ralph Albert — ▪ American painter born Oct. 15, 1847, New York, N.Y., U.S. died Aug. 9, 1919, near Elizabethtown, N.Y.       American painter whose luminous impasto paintings of moonlit scenes convey a mysterious romanticism.       In 1864 Blakelock entered the …   Universalium

  • Blakelock — Portraitfoto, circa 1870 Mondlicht, 1885 Ralph Albert Blakelock (* 15. Oktober 1847 in New York City …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Blakelock —   [ bleɪklɔk], Ralph Albert, amerikanischer Maler, * New York 15. 10. 1847, ✝ Adirondacks bei Elizabethtown (New York) 9. 8. 1919; Autodidakt. Seine frühen Bilder schildern dokumentierend das Leben der Indianer, später malte er Landschaften unter …   Universal-Lexikon

  • Albert Pinkham Ryder — Albert Pinkham Ryder, 1905 Albert Pinkham Ryder (* 19. März 1847 in New Bedford (Massachusetts); † 28. März 1917) war ein amerikanischer Maler, der am besten für seine poetischen und stimmungshaften allegorischen Arbeiten und Seestücke wie auch… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Albert Pinkham Ryder — Infobox Artist bgcolour = #6495ED name = Albert Pinkham Ryder imagesize = 250px caption = Seacoast in Moonlight, 1890, the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. birthname = birthdate = birth date |1847|3|19| location = New Bedford, Massachusetts… …   Wikipedia

  • Liste von Malern/B — Maler   A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Liste der Biografien/Bla — Biografien: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Art, Antiques, and Collections — ▪ 2003 Introduction       In 2002 major exhibitions such as Documenta 11 reflected the diverse nature of contemporary art: artists from a variety of cultures received widespread recognition for work ranging from installation to video to painting …   Universalium

  • List of American artists before 1900 — This is a list by date of birth of historically recognized American fine artists known for the creation of artworks that are primarily visual in nature, including traditional media such as painting, sculpture, photography, and printmaking. Born… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”