Ralph Albert Blakelock The Great Mad Genius Returns

November 11 – December 10, 2016 An Exhibition and Sale

Ralph Albert Blakelock The Great Mad Genius Returns

Louis M. Salerno, Owner

Brent L. Salerno, Co-Owner

Chloe Heins, Director

Nina Sangimino, Senior Researcher

Ally Chapel, Administrator

Jenny Lyubomudrova, Research Associate

Kelly Reilly, Coordinator

Eli Sterngass, Administrative Assistant

Rita J. Walker, Controller

Alison Kowalski, Researcher

Q UESTROYAL F INE A RT, LLC

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Dear Collector, Contents

We have never charged for any of the many catalogues we have distributed over the last two decades. Blakelock Rising   .  If you enjoy them, please consider making a contribution to CaringKind, formerly known as the Alzheimer’s Association, Blakelock in the Eyes of Artists   .  NYC Chapter. This exceptional charity has been the heart Start with What You See    of Alzheimer’s and dementia caregiving for over thirty years. CaringKind provides programs and services supporting the Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919), The Life of the Artist practical needs of individuals and families affected by a    dementia diagnosis. These include access to a twenty-four-hour Plates helpline, individual and family counseling sessions with licensed social workers, a vast network of support groups, Works in the Catalogue education seminars and training programs, and a bracelet identification program for those who wander.

To learn more about CaringKind’s important work and to make a donation visit www.caringkindnyc.org/questroyal/donate, DESIGN : Malcolm Grear Designers or send a check payable to “CaringKind” to Questroyal Fine Art, PRINTING : Meridian Printing PHOTOGRAPHY : Timothy Pyle, Light Blue Studio 903 Park Avenue, Third Floor, New York, NY, 10075. Thank you! EDITING : Eugenia Bell Sincerely, FRONT COVER ( DETAIL ) Eternal Orb,  2

FRONT ENDPAPER ( DETAIL ) Indian Encampment at Sunset,  3

FRONTIS ( DETAIL ) Rising Moon,  36  1 Reflections Louis M. Salerno BACK ENDPAPER ( DETAIL ) Indian Hunters,  7 Owner, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC BACK COVER Director, CaringKind — The Heart of Alzheimer’s Caregiving Indian Encampment,  47 Blakelock Rising   . 

It is a powerful art that awakens a primordial instinct, that eludes and must be engaged to regain balance and to contemplate what is being Blakelock’s output. Every painting is for sale, something that is defies explanation, that lives on as others morph under the gravity of seen. This remarkable innovation has little precedent and is a sig- unheard of for an artist of this caliber and an unprecedented oppor- style and trend, and that impacts the thinking person of the twenty- nificant part of Blakelock’s unique contribution to the art of the tunity for collectors. first century as profoundly as it did in the nineteenth century. world. It has attracted the attention of musicians for over a century. My belief in, and my hope for, Blakelock is best expressed in the Motivated by his disenchantment with his artistic progression, Recently, two individuals, an internationally acclaimed composer final paragraph of Elliot Dangerfield’s seminal biography: Ralph Albert Blakelock journeyed alone deep into the American West. and a world renowned performer, have acquired Blakelock paintings The cycle of strain is over, the golden brush is dull, — in the He assimilated the beliefs and cultures of the various Native American from us, and in the past we have sold his work to two other collectors thoughtful places of men’s hearts he has high and distinguished tribes that he lived among, cultivating a vision that would forever who have won a combined twenty-five Grammy awards. To gain a consideration, but to the outer, larger, more casual world he is define his art. His work inspires viewers to look beyond the accumu- better understanding of this component of his work, I encourage you not yet known. From dim, forgotten places, in the future years, lated thoughts and customs that obscure their connection to life in to read Mark Mitchell’s brilliant essay included herein. other generations will find and bring to light his quiet, glowing its most elemental form. Somehow, without warning, Blakelock’s art To all of you who wonder what I see in Blakelock, I ask you to jewels of color and tone, precious as jewels must ever be, whether brings us face-to-face with life in the raw, revealed in a way that suspend your doubts for the duration of a visit to the gallery. If you they be from the mines of the Lord, or from the deep places of 3 circumvents our intellect and resonates at the core of our being. It dismiss all that I believe, you are still left with George Bellows’s asser- the human heart.

1 takes us to a place, common to all mankind, in the deepest part of tion that Blakelock was a “genius,” with Marsden Hartley’s belief This is that future. We are another generation and once again the 2 our minds, where we are bound to the most primal life force. It is a that his work was a “plausible basis for a genuine American art,” or light shines on Blakelock. place celebrated and understood best by our Native American prede- that Andy Warhol and Jamie Wyeth collected his paintings, and that cessors, which most of us have never discovered, and when Blakelock he was abstract expressionist Franz Kline’s favorite artist. You will 1. George Bellows, quoted in “Plans Exhibition to Aid Blakelock: Mrs. Van Rensselaer gets us there the impact is profound. It is shocking. We do not expect also have to get past the headlines and the vast critical acclaim, as Adams to Have Best Works Placed on View,” New-York Tribune, March 21, 1916. 2. Marsden Hartley, “Eakins, Homer, Ryder” (1930), reprinted in On Art by Marsden it and we lack the ability to calibrate the experience to our intellect. well as the records he broke, before you can completely absolve any Hartley, ed. Gail R. Scott (New York: Horizon Press, 1982), 171–72. Blakelock’s impact is magnified by the duality of his talent. His work interest you may have. For thirty years, I have observed Blakelock’s 3. Elliott Daingerfield, Ralph Albert Blakelock (New York: privately printed, 1914), 40. is infused with a musicality, and by the manipulation of oil and pig- impact. Everyone is vulnerable. Too often collectors visit the gallery ment his canvas is a visual conduit of sound. This added dimension and make an effort to declare their disinterest. But then, there is that

 2 Eternal Orb increases the potency of his compositions exponentially. They appear one painting that halts them and inevitably it is by Blakelock. as ominous as an oncoming vortex whose unbearable sound is silent, Rarely can a gallery present a meaningful overview of an impor- but whose roar is brought to fruition by vivid strokes, agitated texture, tant artist’s entire career. This monumental show, eleven years in and imaginative imagery. It stuns the viewer so that multiple senses the making, will feature 125 paintings representing every phase of Blakelock in the Eyes of Artists   . 

Holcombe T. Green Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, Yale University Art Gallery

Ralph Albert Blakelock was an artist’s artist. His evocative landscapes Daingerfield, on the other hand, was both insightful and poetic in contribute a distinctive and deeply felt vision to the history of Amer- his appreciation for Blakelock’s paintings. “When we look upon the ican art, but Blakelock struggled to support his large family with his exquisite tracery of his black trees against divine skies, we may art and suffered increasingly with mental illness. Only after he was forgive him much, and love intensely his vision of the nightfall hour,” committed to a psychiatric hospital with debilitating schizophrenia he wrote.2 Daingerfield went on to explore several dimensions that in 1899 did his profile increase and the market for his art soar. He was are key to the appreciation of Blakelock’s art. Unfortunately, he also famous — not least for being insane — but unable to benefit from his regularly contradicted himself and inaccurately reported the facts celebrity. Over time, however, a remarkable array of fellow artists have of Blakelock’s life, undermining his credibility with later writers. In shared a different view, expressing admiration for Blakelock’s work and visual terms, however, Daingerfield’s study is a vital reference. His defining his role as a leading figure in the history of American art. writing is the linguistic equivalent of both his own paintings (. 2) and Blakelock’s work, and his close examinations provide durable Art of Darkness insights into Blakelock’s art from his own time. Beginning in his own lifetime, Blakelock was identified with night, First, Daingerfield recognized two “phases of nature” that had including in the first monograph on his art published by painter special appeal for Blakelock: “Moonlight and that strange, wonderful Elliott Daingerfield in 1914. Blakelock’s haunting nocturnes, some moment when night is about to assume full sway, when the light in quite large (. 1), often feature tree-lined embankments silhouetted the western sky lingers lovingly, glowingly, for a space, and the trees by a full moon and softly glowing sky. During the early years of the trace themselves in giant patterns of lace against the light…. This twentieth century the darkness of Blakelock’s palette seemed to was Blakelock’s moment, and it took such hold upon him that his mirror the artist’s struggle and suggested an intimate expression of vision translated it into all his work.”3 It is an evocative account of his mental illness. The strength of that impression, the very cause an evocative art. Whereas most studies of Blakelock are biographical

 3 Indian Encampment at Sunset of his fame, eclipsed visual description of Blakelock’s art in critical in emphasis or subdivide it into various subjects, Daingerfield per- and scholarly writing, including Daingerfield’s thoughtful study. In suasively focuses on climate and effect as organizing ideas. the view of art historian E. P. Richardson, writing at mid-century, He goes on to identify three paintings as the pinnacle of Blakelock’s Blakelock’s “work is kept alive by his tragic story,” a perspective that art: one now in the Toledo Museum of Art (. 1), another at the has been reinforced in more recent surveys.1 National Gallery of Art (. 3), and the third at the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery. Unlike the diffuse or generic language applied in most Daingerfield’s eyes derived from their combination of a prevailing . 4 Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847–1917), writing about Blakelock, Daingerfield’s descriptions of these works mood and intimate effect. Sherman elaborated on Daingerfield’s With Sloping Mast and Dipping are grounded in visual experience and therefore especially helpful to perception of the essential unity and “monumental dignity” in Prow, ca. 1880–85, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, 12 x 12 viewers seeking an introduction to Blakelock’s art. Perhaps his single Blakelock’s smallest works by contributing an article dedicated to the inches, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly  3 1916 7 best description is of Moonlight ( . ), now at the National Gallery. subject to Art in America in . (1929.6.102) He concentrates on the delicacy and gradation of color in its sky, of Daingerfield attempted to dispel early and persistent speculation Photo courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC / Art which the painting is largely comprised, above “slight trees” and “the about Blakelock’s use of unstable media, particularly the asphalt- Resource, NY mysterious glint of water somewhere out there among the shadows.” based pigment bitumen. A self-taught painter and son of a homeo- “The great sky soars up from horizon to zenith, arching overhead pathic physician, Blakelock has suffered from the perception that on Blakelock’s art during the painter’s lifetime. His admiration for . 1 . 2 superbly, and baffling all search in its gradations; the moon hangs he lacked proper instruction and experimented with ill-considered, Blakelock’s process and desire to define the highest level of his Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919), Elliott Daingerfield (1859–1932), Moonlight, Brook by Moonlight, before 1891, oil late 1880s to mid 1890s, oil on canvas, low and fills the air with light … the light is that mysterious mingling unconventional materials. Blakelock painted twilight and moonlit achievement remains foundational to the study of Blakelock’s art. on canvas, 721/8 x 481/16 inches, Toledo 183/16 x 143/16 inches, Henry Art Gallery, of opaline colors merging into pale greens and blues, splendidly landscapes, however, so his art was always dark. According to Daingerfield may have recognized the primary dimensions of Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. University of Washington, Seattle, Edward Drummond Libbey, 1916.4 Horace C. Henry Collection, Acc. #26.37 assembled.”4 In the language of the day, Daingerfield admired Daingerfield, “the accusation against Blakelock that his canvases Blakelock’s art, but other artists contributed significant perspectives “the quality of perfect completion” in Moonlight, in contrast to many blacken with time is hardly fair and seldom true.”8 Daingerfield as well, often while addressing broader themes in American art. other Blakelocks that are characterized by “suggestive incomplete- acknowledged that the artist had used bitumen, but only briefly, and In 1905, for example, nearly a decade before Daingerfield’s book ness,” the visual language of dreams and memory. “The picture has assured his readers that most of Blakelock’s paintings are durable, appeared, the painter Samuel Isham raised “the question of texture” for years been well known,” he continues, “and a valued work an assertion that time has borne out. Nevertheless, the perception in recent American art, by which he meant “using pigment and by the public and by the artists. In the profession it has been called a lingers today that Blakelock, like the era’s other great visionary painter varnish so that they should be beautiful in themselves.” To Isham, perfect moonlight, and, it has no enemies — a strange thing, indeed, Albert Pinkham Ryder, was a poor craftsman. Only further scientific Blakelock was “an extreme example” of those who considered as painters have strong prejudices.”5 Remarkably, even Daingerfield’s study will prove Daingerfield’s point and overturn that commonly “matter as quite as important as ideas” and in whose works nature expression of esteem is framed in terms of the universal appreciation held belief, now discredited in Ryder’s case. was symbolic, rather than descriptive. “Often the idea (an emotional voiced by artists. Daingerfield and Sherman were themselves in the thick of the not an intellectual idea) lay in transparent brown shadows, spots of Daingerfield expanded his field to address the power of Blakelock’s market — both personally owned Blakelock paintings illustrated in color or interesting patterns rather than any accurate transcript of smaller compositions as well. The artist seemed, in one instance, “to Daingerfield’s book, which Sherman copyrighted. They would co- nature, and sometimes in Ryder’s work, and still more in that of a search for that high note which delicate, pale-green tones give, and organize — with Blakelock’s trusted friend Harry Watrous — the land- man like Blakelock, the component elements, the trees and rocks these feel their way through fields of silver, glinting, trembling mark 1916 exhibition of Blakelock’s paintings at Reinhardt Galleries in and streams, had been so adapted by the artist to his purpose as to . 3 6 Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919), Moonlight, 1886/1895, and altogether beautiful.” Both Daingerfield and the art publisher New York that sparked fevered press coverage when the artist himself resemble their prototypes in nature only suggestively, somewhat as oil on canvas, 271/16 x 371/16 inches, National Gallery of Art, Frederic Fairchild Sherman recognized the strength of the small was permitted to leave the sanitarium for a single day to attend. Between a heraldic lion resembles a real one.”9 As Isham observed, Blakelock Washington, Corcoran Collection (2014.136.20) paintings. The distinction of Blakelock’s small compositions in his book and the exhibition, Daingerfield was the single leading voice and Ryder (. 4), whose paintings are often compared, both expended considerable effort building up the surfaces of their American Art Museum), offers a varied surface of intermingled, . 5 of the piano and sold him one for his studio, which Watrous remem- James Abbott McNeill Whistler paintings to enhance dramatic expression. Their art is experienced textured strokes similar to those in the rocky hillside at the right. (1834–1903), Nocturne in Black bered him playing to help dramatize movement in one of his dance simultaneously on the active, textured surface of the paint and in its Even the stand of trees in the upper right corner presents a similar and Gold, The Falling Rocket, subjects.13 And among Blakelock’s best collectors of the period, 1875, oil on panel, 233/4 x 183/8 illusion of space. sense of accretion. Blakelock defines his forms through layer upon inches, Detroit Institute of Arts, alongside Watrous, was the vaudevillian Lew Bloom, for whom USA, Gift of Dexter M. Ferry Jr. / Isham identifies texture as a key aspect of Blakelock’s art, one that layer of imbricated brushwork to create a rich, textured formation. Bridgeman Images Blakelock occasionally played. Blakelock embraced music through- is readily introduced in particular by his depictions of rocks, such The fluid movement in Blakelock’s skies contrasts with the solidity out his life as well as into his paintings’ titles with synesthetic effect. as those featured in his Edge of the Forest ( 30). Daingerfield of his rocks and trees, but with a similarly active painted surface of The rich textures of his surfaces, as Isham discussed, provided the was understandably preoccupied by Blakelock’s atmosphere and successive translucent glazes that bring light into and through the matrix for the rhythms and structure of Blakelock’s visual melodies. the glimmering tracery of moonlight seen through foliage, but paint, rather than resisting it. Glassy with interspersed layers of glaze, Another key artist’s view of Blakelock came later, in 1962, in mini- Blakelock’s style may also be described in geological terms, both light refracts in the delicately colored skies to create a sense of malist Donald Judd’s review of the exhibition Blakelock and Some because of its accumulated strata and its impression of volume. ephemeral luminosity. His early and dramatic Indian Encampment Fine Arts, Boston), for example, would not only become the title of of His Contemporaries at Bertha Lewison Gallery in New York.14 For the visual description of rocks, the vocabulary of stone applies at Sunset ( 3) offers a forerunner of that effect in the Hudson one of Blakelock’s finest works, but also reflects a musical association Writing shortly before scholar Norman Geske began his long study intuitively, and, once introduced, its logic can be extended to other River School style that he practiced at the beginning of his career. In that several artists recognized in his art. Historically, his radiant, tonal of Blakelock in 1966, Judd added special emphasis on Blakelock’s features, like the massing of trees and even sky. Remarkably, a theme his most common configuration, the moon — or sun, in the previous nocturnes recall the allusive compositions of James Abbott McNeill American-ness, a cultural emphasis that widened the lens of in Blakelock’s earlier art is the rocky chasm that frames a narrow example — radiates light and energy through atmosphere to shape Whistler, including his celebrated Nocturne in Black and Gold, The Blakelock’s significance to the nation’s culture. Writing in the midst sliver of space into which the eye travels, as seen in The Boulder and our vision of the landscape. Falling Rocket of 1875 (. 5). Whistler referred to the composition of the Cold War, Judd’s identification of Blakelock with a distinctive the Flume (1878, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum Layering and scraping in turn, Blakelock kept his ground layers, as “an artistic arrangement” and hence a “nocturne” rather than a American tradition was also relevant to the emerging field of Ameri- of Art). The stone faces of the cliffs prefigure the framing role of trees which Daingerfield referred to as “silvery,” in view as he worked, view of a specific place. Even the colored night sky in Whistler’s can art history. Like other artists before him, Judd’s view of Blakelock in his later work and provide an organizing principle to his composi- unifying his compositions.10 “One almost feels that it is an axiom composition echoes in Blakelock’s many night scenes, such as is redemptive. His self-appointed role is to correct misperception: tions of encroaching walls. that Blakelock is at his finest in silver, greens and pale blues,” he Moonlit Landscape ( 52). The cascading sparks of fireworks “It is obligatory, emotionally, in first writing about Blakelock, Ryder, As Daingerfield described, Blakelock’s process was to paint in concludes, with colors that seem to “feel their way through a field of over London in Whistler’s composition resemble the flicker of Eakins, [and Homer,] to repeat that they were ignored.” Judd remarked many successive strata atop a highly textured ground layer, building silver.”11 The vein of silver that runs beneath Blakelock’s composi- moonlight through leaves in Blakelock’s scenes. Even the framing on the endurance of the misconceptions —“cultural confusion”— of and rebuilding the upper layers to allow medium to collect in the tions creates a sense of solidity, luminosity, and fluid movement, an trees at the left edge of Whistler’s composition approximate the the age that endured to his own time. ground’s irregular surface only to be partially wiped or scraped away effective paradox. That sense of slow, powerful movement and tran- strong, dark shapes of Blakelock’s work. They equally operate near Among Judd’s insights, he described the “dissonant color” in again. At times, entire paintings became submerged and translated sient energy echoes one of the few remarks attributed to the artist the cusp of abstraction, composing movement, color, energy, and Blakelock’s paintings —“the blue-green and black scheme, for example,” into new compositions on top of them or in a different orientation. from the height of his career, when he described his desire to make light to evoke musical experience. found in Stilly Night ( 4) among many others — emblematic of The complex surfaces that result can resemble walls of metamorphic color “flow upon the senses, as some melody.”12 Exposure to music was a refrain of Blakelock’s life, though opinions his form of “lyricism.” The eerie, otherworldly quality of Blakelock’s rock. The stone outcropping at the left of Edge of the Forest, and That silvery tone invokes the music that was a recurring theme in differ as to the level of his ability as a musician. A neighbor in East light becomes, to Judd’s mind, a conceptual device that resonates the related composition At Nature’s Mirror (ca. 1880, Smithsonian Blakelock’s life and art. Moonlight Sonata (ca. 1889–92, Museum of Orange, New Jersey, reportedly helped Blakelock to advance his study with the artistic and musical culture of the 1960s. Also, Blakelock’s skies screened by trees are “an extreme reversal of positive and nega- . 6 Harry Watrous (1857–1940), The tive,” in which “the surface of a painting opens and closes and flows.” Inlet, ca. 1929, oil on canvas, 507/16 x Both characterizations connect with the artistic ideas of Judd’s own 375/8 inches, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, Gift of the Artist, 1929.6 time, in which the viewer’s eye is called upon to complete suggestive forms and meanings. To Judd, Blakelock’s use of texture offered unique “immediacy” in the surface of his paintings, drawing attention to the material quality of Blakelock’s medium. Each of Judd’s obser- vations addresses a constituent component of Blakelock’s art — color, space, surface — that echoed in Judd’s own time and yet equally echoed the views expressed earlier by Daingerfield and Isham. Watrous became Blakelock’s great ally, buying many of Blakelock’s Great Americans works himself and helping to sell others. Throughout Blakelock’s Turning to Blakelock’s place in American art, several artists who them- life, and after his death, Watrous would work steadily to promote selves practiced remarkably disparate styles ranked him among the Blakelock’s art and safeguard his legacy. nation’s finest painters. By the company in which they kept him, the Watrous’s respect and admiration for Blakelock’s work was reflected artists — including the academic figure painter Watrous, modernist in the quality of his collecting, including many of Blakelock’s finest Marsden Hartley, and social realist George Bellows — significantly works such as Moonlight (1886/1895, . 3). Watrous’s collection revised the field’s emerging history, interjecting Blakelock as a neces- constituted a clear statement of recognition and understanding of sary addition to the canon. Blakelock’s art, sheltering it until recognition belatedly came and That story begins with friendship. During the 1880s, while living then turning the profit from their resale over to his friend. At around in the Sherwood Building in midtown Manhattan along with many of the time of Blakelock’s Reinhardt retrospective in 1916, Watrous the leading painters of his day, Blakelock found a loyal advocate in himself began to paint evocative moonlight scenes (. 6) much the young Harry Watrous, with whom he appears to have had almost like Blakelock’s and very different from his own usual work. His nothing in common.15 A decade older than Watrous, Blakelock was dedication never wavered, and from his position as secretary (later self-taught, whereas Watrous studied art in Paris; Blakelock was poor, president) of the National Academy of Design, he almost certainly Watrous affluent; Blakelock had few friends, Watrous joined New advocated for Blakelock’s election to membership in the honorary York’s leading clubs; Blakelock mostly painted wilderness, Watrous association late in life.

 4 Stilly Night painted beautiful young women in elegant interiors. Nevertheless, Early on, in the 1880s, however, Watrous had astonished his with studios on the same floor, the artists became acquainted and friends by ranking Blakelock among the nation’s finest landscape . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña (1808–1876), A Vista through George Inness (1825–1894), Moonrise, 1887, oil on canvas, Marsden Hartley (1877–1943), Beaver Lake, Winslow Homer (1836–1910), Kissing the Moon, 1904, oil on Trees: Fontainebleau, 1873, oil on wood, 123/4 x 171/4 inches, 201/4 x 301/2 inches, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Lost River Region, 1930, oil on canvas, 347/8 x canvas, 301/4 x 40 inches, Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac D. Connecticut, gift of Teresa Heinz in memory of her husband, 303/16 inches, Collection Walker Art Center, Academy, Andover, bequest of Candace C. Stimson, 1946.19 Fletcher Collection, Bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher (17.120.230) H. John Heinz III, B.A. 1960, 1992.5.13 Minneapolis, gift of Bertha H. Walker, 1971 Photo courtesy of Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA / Art Resource, NY

painters. The list included only three names: George Inness, Alexander Barbizon artists is still debated, as is his specific awareness of their dreamscapes and convey the viewer into the expressive experience doesn’t tell you how marvellous [sic] or how inspiring the fact is,” Wyant, and Blakelock.16 This cast of progressives set the self-taught art, which is unrecorded. The artist who knew him best, Watrous, did of the mind. This was Blakelock’s vision, or at least the foundation of Hartley observes, “and my ideas are running very much away these Blakelock into a group of aesthetically advanced painters identified not shy away from recognizing Blakelock’s ability or from identifying it. Inness’s religious convictions about the presence of the spiritual in days toward the qualities of life as it is and the essential truths of with the influence of the French Barbizon School, led by artists like him with American landscapists directly influenced by Barbizon, the natural world — including the Swedenborgian faith that he and experience — experience unembellished and unadorned.”19 Works Narcisse-Virgile Diaz de la Peña (. 7) and Théodore Rousseau. This however. Among other resemblances with the Barbizon painters are Blakelock shared — manifests in paintings such as Moonrise (. 8), like Hartley’s 1930 Beaver Lake, Lost River Region (. 9) help to was the era in which American artists sought distinction in interna- both the shadowed forest interiors of Diaz and Rousseau as well as with an atmospheric evocation of color in the transition to night that clarify his meaning as to his then current preoccupations. The active tional terms, vying with the great contemporary artists of Europe and his figure paintings of Native American encampments and rituals that resembles Blakelock’s work on related themes. Within this group of surface of the painting’s massive mountainside and gathering of distancing themselves from the ostensibly native aesthetics of the parallel the restless agitation of Adolphe Monticelli’s sylvan festivals. artists that Watrous identified is a shared commitment to poetic trees by the water’s edge creates a textural impression of its own, Hudson River School that had prevailed at mid-century. Inness, Wyant, While their subjects and expressiveness is similar, Blakelock synthe- expression, rather than descriptive naturalism. the tenor of which is established through a nearly monochromatic and Blakelock had all begun their careers in that style only to change sized his influences, doubtless multiple, into a visionary form of his Artists varied the lists of leading figures in which they included green palette and leaden sky that offer a fairly direct dialogue course in the 1870s and 1880s. own that is largely set in the American landscape inspired by his per- Blakelock. Marsden Hartley remarked in 1930 that an exhibition of with Blakelock’s work. The more literary Ryder addresses American Watrous was not alone in that association, it seems, though the sonal travels through the American West between 1869 and 1872.17 Eakins, Homer, and Ryder at the Museum of Modern Art would subjects and landscape less often than Blakelock or (increasingly) evidence is circumstantial. The height of appreciation for Barbizon What both the Barbizon painters and the American tonalists, like have benefitted from “more enlightening comparisons” and proven Hartley. To Hartley, the counterpoint between Homer and Eakins aesthetics came at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, the same Inness and Wyant, offered Blakelock was a break from visual experi- “more thrilling” had Blakelock “at his best” been included along with in the realm of realism correlated to the “imaginatives” Ryder and exhibition at which Blakelock received his first award, an honorary ence. Instead of describing nature as seen, they refined its most George Fuller, Homer Dodge Martin, and Inness.18 His recognition Blakelock. Homer’s dramatic scenes of man and nature (. 10) mention, for An Indian Encampment (ca. 1880–1900) in the collection expressive effects through memory and distillation. Softness of of Blakelock followed a discussion of the work of Thomas Eakins, contrasted with the more cerebral Eakins, as the more forceful of of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Blakelock’s position relative to atmosphere and broad sweeps of idealized color and form suggest which he finds lacking in “the essential truths of experience.” “Eakins Ryder’s narrative inventions balanced against Blakelock’s serenity. . 11 . 12 of the contemplative intensity that characterizes Blakelock’s art as selves to visceral response. Each person seeing his art for the first Franz Kline (1910–1962), Black, George Bellows (1882–1925), White, and Gray, 1959, oil on Figures in Moonlight, an influence on the psychological power of their own modern realist time therefore has the opportunity to create a new understanding, canvas, 105 x 78 inches, The undated, black chalk, grey aesthetics during the early twentieth century. a new record. If not influenced by prior knowledge of the artist’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, wash, graphite on paper, George A. Hearn Fund (59.165) 14 x 11 inches, Yale University The one artist who did not list Blakelock among the great artists of mental health, viewers respond first to his evocative poetry and vivid © 2016 The Franz Kline Estate / Artists Art Gallery, New Haven, Rights Society (ARS), New York Connecticut, bequest of his day or associate him with others stylistically was Daingerfield. effects. Artists, too, generally respond to art visually, rather than Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. His project, instead, was to set Blakelock apart, to define his art as a biographically, and their insights provide a durable foundation now 1903, 1961.18.9 solitary achievement, important and different. His claim of isolation and in the future for the continuing study of Blakelock’s art. is implausible at best, especially for a painter working at one of New York’s most fashionable studio buildings and showing in the 1. E. P. Richardson, Painting in America (rev. ed.; New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1965), 353. city’s primary contemporary art venue. Adopting the time-honored 2. Elliott Daingerfield, Ralph Albert Blakelock (New York: privately printed, 1914), 34. trope of the native, self-taught genius learning solely from nature 3. Ibid., 28. 4. Ibid. itself, Daingerfield strove to set Blakelock entirely apart. But in 1914, 5. Ibid., 26. These were the roots of American modernism as Hartley conceived asserted Blakelock’s place among progressive American painters Blakelocks were selling for astonishing prices, capturing widespread 6. Ibid., 37. 7. Frederic Fairchild Sherman, “Blakelock’s Smaller Landscapes and Figure Pieces,” Art in it, and Blakelock had an important role to play. and Hartley listed him with the great American artists of the late press and attention on the eve of the most famous sale of his work America 4 (June 1916): 234–42. Hartley’s view resonated later in the century with the experience nineteenth century, Bellows pushed yet farther and set him on in history in 1916, when the industrialist Catholina Lambert sold 8. Daingerfield, 20. 9. Samuel Isham, The History of American Painting (1st ed., 1905; rev. ed., New York: The  of abstract expressionist Franz Kline, who introduced one of his most the world stage, a unique moment of recognition for the penniless, Brook by Moonlight ( . 1) at auction for an astounding $20,000, MacMillan Company, 1910), 446–47. important patrons to Blakelock’s work, a sympathetic forerunner of his institutionalized Blakelock. breaking records for a work of contemporary art. “Inness, Wyant, 10. Daingerfield, 19. 11. Ibid., 37. own art.20 Kline’s paintings, such as Black, White, and Gray (. 11), Henri’s quote in the same article is less emphatic, saying only that Homer Martin, he must have known well, but there is no trace, to me, 12. Quoted in “Blakelock, Ralph Albert,” in Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography actively intertwine positive and negative spaces and depict powerful, he hopes Blakelock will someday recuperate from his illness and of their influence in his work,” Daingerfield insisted. Even Ryder was (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887), 1:287. 13. Glyn Vincent, The Unknown Night: The Madness and Genius of R. A. Blakelock, An expressive, dark forms in light fields that embody a sensibility that is make work “just as good” as before his confinement. Nevertheless, “kin” to Blakelock only in a shared interest in “magical” effects. American Painter (New York: Grove Press, 2003), 163. remarkably similar to Blakelock’s. he was clearly aware of Blakelock’s work and willing to make a “Knowledge of the Barbizon men was probably slight, and of little 14. Donald Judd, “Ralph Blakelock,” Arts Magazine 36 (September 1962): 53–54. 22 15. John Davis, “Our United Happy Family: Artists in the Sherwood Studio Building, When a writer for the New-York Tribune sought quotes in support statement of support. Taken together, however, Bellows’s and Henri’s influence upon his mind,” he concluded. Without the obligation 1880–1900,” Archives of American Art Journal 36, no. 3/4 (1996): 2–19. of the upcoming exhibition of Blakelock’s paintings at the Reinhardt quotes amount to an endorsement of Blakelock by The Eight, with of asserting Blakelock’s importance, which the market had done 16. Lloyd Goodrich, Ralph Albert Blakelock: Centenary Exhibition (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1947), 26. 1916 their gritty urban realism and vitalist appreciation for nature. Bellows’s for him, Daingerfield concentrated on his uniqueness, greatness of Galleries in , the author turned not to Hartley or another modern- 17. Vincent, 93–124. ist, but rather to the social realists George Bellows and Robert Henri. remark, in particular, encourages a second look at works like Figures a different stripe. 18. Marsden Hartley, “Eakins, Homer, Ryder” (1930), reprinted in On Art by Marsden Hartley, ed. Gail R. Scott (New York: Horizon Press, 1982), 171. Finding any subject on which both realists and abstract painters of in Moonlight (. 12) and his contemporary series of nocturnal 19. Hartley, “Eakins, Homer, Ryder,” 171. the era agreed is a rare thing, and yet Bellows is famously quoted as depictions of the coast of Monhegan Island in Maine. For Blakelock’s Through time, artists have seen Blakelock’s art refreshingly differ- 20. Abraham A. Davidson, Ralph Albert Blakelock (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996), 204. proclaiming that Blakelock “made a strong impression not only upon work, too, Bellows’s and Henri’s statements of support and apprecia- ently from critics, journalists, and even art historians. Fortunately, 21. “Plans Exhibition to Aid Blakelock,” New-York Tribune, March 21, 1916, 9. 21 American art, but upon the art of the world.” Whereas Watrous tion offer retrospective insight. They were drawing forward a sense his paintings are immediate in their impressions and lend them- 22. Daingerfield, 21. Start with What You See   

In October 2005, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Genius country’s Native Americans. He intuited the mythical power of First opened at Questroyal Fine Art. As luck would have it, I was invited to Nations, seeing their virtues above all else. He was empathetic to the contribute to the catalogue accompanying that distinguished show. painful struggle of anyone attempting to live in a hostile world. Now, more than ten years later, “the great mad genius” returns. What Blakelock immersed himself in finding a new language through a thrill it is to be asked to participate in this new, monumental pigment on canvas, board, and paper. Ahead of his time, he experi- exhibition of 125 paintings by Ralph Albert Blakelock. With this show mented with materials and techniques to achieve the desired effect. comes an exceptional opportunity for me to not only honor my He improvised on the piano and ran between the easel and the key- great-great-grandfather as an artist, but to help celebrate the power board, introducing rhythm and song to his brush. He declared imag- of the accumulative impact of his vision while savoring each image. ination a means of artistic expression on par with academic study. To be in the midst of this immense collection, so passionately cham- Artists today automatically know what Blakelock endured by pioned by this gallery, is akin to stepping back in time, with a heart so trusting his intuition: that to commit to his art as a means of survival, open one can barely breathe. his raison d’etre, his sole profession, he would defy the corruption Ralph Albert Blakelock, probably on the occasion of the A hundred years ago, in April 1916, Blakelock had the most important and greed of the market. Yet self-representation leaves any artist artist’s wedding to Cora Rebecca Bailey, February 27, 1877 Collection Myra Platt solo exhibit of his lifetime. In order to see his paintings on display at vulnerable. Blakelock put everything he had toward his fight for his Reinhardt Galleries,* he was granted a one-day leave from Middletown personal artistic claim. Hospital in Upstate New York to travel to the city. Amid dignitaries Experts agree that the oeuvre of Ralph Albert Blakelock spans mul- and dealers, journalists and flashing cameras, there he stood, in the tiple genres: he has been simultaneously classified as a member of center of the room staring at his work on the wall. It was a gawking the Hudson River School, a colorist, a luminist, and an early abstract affair. The mental patient, seventy years old and weighing a mere expressionist. This collection revels in the full spectrum. Blakelock’s ninety pounds, looked upon his paintings as if they were his off- multiple avenues of entry spark our imagination, enticing us to join spring. Recalling their birthplace and names with innate precision, in this moveable feast of romance, reality, nature, history, and dreams. attendees were stunned into silence as the humble artist spoke elo- The colors in his romantic paintings glisten in idyllic soft blues, quently and coherently about his work. This was no “madman,” this blissful greens, and rosy peach yellows. And yet, these are not merely  5 Night Glow was a mastermind, full of love and pathos. This was a genius sharing to woo a quixotic ideal, but rather to arrest a moment in the sun’s his vision. Today his work continues to speak across the centuries. orbit — snagging at the end of a fishing line, the light of morning, or “The mad genius” was the thirteenth Ralph but the first Albert that very early evening when the delicacy of nature hangs in the and the first self-anointed Duke of York. He was an American; an balance. These pictures of tranquility whisper hush, walk down this unsuspecting dreamer, a nonconformist, who dared to reinvent him- path, and glory in the sweetness of time holding still. Ralph Albert Blakelock, ca. 1869–72 self, to take what he saw and reinterpret it. He risked traversing lands His shanties of old Manhattan show us the gritty reality of Collection Myra Platt few had ever seen, and witnessed firsthand the solemn existence of the hardscrabble days living on that rocky island. Nowhere to go on the canvas but to marvel at how the earliest beginnings of the city, Blakelock’s art, like so many before and after him, exposes the fragility of living imprisoned in a broken quarry, has been replaced with and impermanence of natural wonders and reawakens our imagina- concrete and glass. It is fascinating to imagine what it was like then; tion. The more we are able to educate ourselves about the things we how similar today’s sidewalks are, grounded in the same antique care deeply about, the better our understanding, the stronger our stony streets. The affect of the ancient shanties rising out of the mud connection to whatever is before us. This creative conversation, this is no different than the city reaching skyward — all the while risking, sharing and receiving, is a priceless experience. A pulsating river of even anticipating, potential destruction. energy passes from the creator to the beholder, defining a moment in Compare Blakelock’s scenes of impoverishment to his passionate history as a moment to be revered so that we may appreciate our own and prolific outbursts in his Western landscapes. The purity of form, being. In returning to the world of this singular artist, we revisit the dramatic sunsets, and wild landscape all invite us to escape, to roam simple fact that art simply cannot be, unless there is an audience who free, and be one with our naked selves. His utmost respect for accu- receives it and one who chooses to cherish it. Fine art’s worth comes racy in portraying the nomadic scenes of Native American life remains with the story living behind, underneath, and within the canvas. The to this day a personal message, a private plea. He offers a glimpse with value of such art increases with time, as long as those stories continue such veneration and respect for this wild peace. While he painted, to breathe. Feel the profound energy, the pulse, and the ancient rhythms; Blakelock allowed himself to enter into feverish states in order to the artist’s presence is palpable. We are all guardians of Blakelock. accurately and authentically represent not just something he saw, My heartfelt thanks to Louis Salerno and all at Questroyal for their but something he felt: the reverberating beats of the drums, the vocal epic perseverance in bringing together this major exhibition with incantations and pounding feet, shaking rattles, whispers and cries, such fortitude and grace. My family is ever grateful for the continued conjuring, celebrating, honoring spirits and gods of the earth. A hun- interest and honoring of Blakelock’s genius, for allowing his work to dred years later, we see with new eyes this early conservation effort live and breathe, to excite us all. as brilliant and true. Blakelock’s emblematic moonlight paintings exemplify his notion *At the time of the Reinhardt Galleries exhibition, M. Knoedler & Co. (situated across the that in the darkest part of any forest, the rise of the moon brings the street) displayed seven Ralph Albert Blakelock paintings that were on loan from Harry  6 Shanties in Harlem, 1874 comfort of light, while the silhouetted trees reveal strength in form. Watrous. Watrous, who was both a family friend and Blakelock’s artistic colleague, chose his favorites and was pleased to have them in close proximity to the historic Reinhardt exhibi- The theatricality of his nightscapes is his testament to that which is tion. Family lore has it that this show also featured work by Blakelock’s daughter, Marian. inherent in life and exists in our oldest dreams. In my imagination, I cannot help but wonder what could have happened had Blakelock managed to cross the street and bear witness to the paintings by the daughter whom he There is a kinetic relationship between a work of art and the person had taught to paint hanging on a gallery wall so close to his own. As a child, my own father, Walter Blakelock Wilson, who passed away in 2011, helped rescue the oral history of who breathes it in with admiration and appreciation. There is a fluidity Blakelock from his family, wrestling stories from my great-great-grandmother and piecing of history as currency for what matters, and an opportunity to reflect together the how and why of the art. All his life, my father credited Blakelock for igniting his own passion for painting and creativity, an appetite that was passed along to me, along on our good fortune while contemplating from whence we came. with musical composition and creating theater — a rich inheritance and responsibility. Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919), The Life of the Artist   

There will soon be held in New York an exhibition of paintings he excelled in drawing classes, they proved uninspiring for the which will be of unusual interest, since it will recite, in terms of burgeoning artist, and in 1866 he dropped out to begin painting full weird tonality, one of the saddest romances of American art — the time. He first exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1867, and story of a man whose genius and ambition enabled him to master two years later set out on his inaugural Western trip. This journey his profession without the aid of instructors, who dreamed strange proved to be crucial to his artistic vision and an influence on his work dreams and told them in remarkable color schemes till the tread for the rest of his life. While cross-country trips were becoming some- of reason broke under the strain, and who now languishes in an what common among nineteenth-century artists, most famously 1 asylum, his former art scarcely a recollection. Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902) and Thomas Moran (1837–1926), they were typically embarked on as part of government sponsored expeditions. At the time of his death on August 9, 1919, Ralph Albert Blakelock Blakelock, however, traveled alone. By railroad and stagecoach he was hailed by the London Times as “one of the greatest of American made his way through the territories of Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, artists.”2 Yet he had spent almost all of the previous eighteen years Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California.4 While the expansiveness confined to a mental institution, separated from a family who was and wonder of the landscape impressed him, as it did other artists, living in extreme poverty, and without access to the art materials he it was the time spent with various American Indian tribes that had had used to create his masterpiece moonlight scenes. Despite these a particular effect. From Fort Pierre in present-day South Dakota, hardships, he created an incredibly unique, visionary, and modern he traveled into the wilderness alone on horseback and spent time body of work that continues to inspire audiences a century later. with tribes of the Great Sioux Nation.5 At a moment when Native Blakelock was born on Christopher Street in New York City, on Americans were still holding onto many of their traditional practices October 15, 1847, to an English carpenter, who would later serve as as white expansion was rapidly taking hold around them, Blakelock a police officer before becoming a homeopathic doctor. His uncle felt that they provided a mystical and ancient connection to nature. James A. Johnson, a choirmaster with such influential acquaintances Indian encampments became a major theme in Blakelock’s work as James Renwick Brevoort (1832–1918) and Frederic Church (1826– (s 7, 9, 48), but rather than purely historic scenes, like those  7 Indian Hunters 1900), became Blakelock’s cultural mentor, introducing him from a created by George Catlin (1796–1872), Blakelock applied his unique young age to music and painting.3 Initially intending to follow in his vision to the landscape of the West. As Mark Mitchell describes, “they father’s medical footsteps, Blakelock enrolled in the Free Academy of were documents of his experience and observations, but with time the City of New York (later City College) in September 1864. Although they became documents of his memory, as well as the memory of the nation at large.”6 His early Western landscapes and primeval forests to keep things going. He could paint a really good picture in less time foreshadowed the style he would later develop, in which mood than anyone else I ever saw.”10 superseded the importance of geographical detail. Financial success eluded him, in part because he sold his art When Blakelock returned to New York he listed himself as an directly rather than through a gallery or dealer. Despite this, he artist in the city directory and rented his own studio space.7 He was managed to garner a fair amount of prestige and his work was sought exhibiting regularly at the National Academy of Design, and, at first, by some of the most important collectors, including Catholina still emulating the Hudson River School style ( , 11, 21). Lambert, Thomas B. Clarke, Senator William A. Clark, William T. It was during this time that he painted the extraordinary Indian Evans, and Lew Bloom, a popular vaudeville star. In 1879, Blakelock Encampment Along the Snake River (1871, American Museum of received his first review, which appeared in the New York Times, for Western Art — The Anschutz Collection).8 Working in the city, he works hanging at the National Academy of Design. In 1883, he moved drew inspiration from the landscape surrounding him just as he into the prestigious Tenth Street Studio Building, alongside such had on his travels. Inspired by urban life, he continued to forge his masters as William Merritt Chase (1849–1916) and Frederic Church. own path. Beginning in the 1860s and persisting after his return to The 1884 Society of American Artists exhibition continued his climb New York, Blakelock ventured to the undeveloped northern edges to fame as he received recognition in the Tribune and Mail Express, of the city (at that time the area surrounding 55th Street and into and his paintings were lauded by the World as being “among the best Central Park) and painted the shanties growing up out of earth works shown,” and in the Times as “rich and powerful.” Clarence ( 6, 19). These works began to take on a looser and more Cook of the Tribune wrote that it was “the best work of his which we expressive style, and again focused on a unique existence, unlike the have seen, marked not only by rich coloring, but by the possession scenes of leisure present in the works of his contemporaries. of a distinctive character.”11 In 1877, he married Cora Rebecca Bailey and they welcomed the Unanimously identified as a colorist by reviewers, it was during this first of nine children. The young artist struggled to support his new period of mounting achievement that Blakelock began to focus on and quickly growing family. He sometimes took jobs as an art teacher his most celebrated and iconic moonlight scenes ( 4, 33, 36). and later would paint plaques at E. C. Meekers Art Novelty Shop in He departed from copying a real place and instead imagined land- New Jersey while he and his family lived nearby in East Orange.9 He scapes, using color and technique to create a mood and evoke a pow-  produced many small, swiftly finished works for the purpose of a quick erful response in the viewer. This was unlike other landscape painters 8 Autumn Landscape sale, and at times, in the interest of generating cash, undervalued his at the time. Even Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847–1917), to whom he paintings and sold them for far too little. Described by Cora in a 1908 was typically linked in critical reviews, used strong literary references letter to art dealer Robert Vose, “His best work took a long time to as inspiration, whereas Blakelock turned totally inward for inspira- complete and in the meantime he had to live. Pictures were painted tion. The unique process he developed to create the recognizable  9 Indian Encampment at Twilight

 11 A Spring Garden

 10 Moonrise silhouettes of his lace-like trees against a silvery, glowing moonlit sky return to New York, Blakelock began working out of fellow artist and placed an emphasis on abstraction and expression, and his focus on later president of the National Academy of Design Harry Watrous’s material and surface were surprisingly modern for the 1880s ( (1857–1940) studio in the Sherwood Building. It was here that Blakelock 1, 2, 10). He worked in multiple layers of paint and varnish, and painted his masterpiece Brook by Moonlight (Toledo Museum of Art, rubbed and scraped into his works to create a landscape totally . 2 in Mitchell, “Blakelock in the Eyes of Artists”). Blakelock enjoyed unlike the Hudson River School–inspired works of his early years: a few years respite where he continued painting and exhibiting, but the family moved constantly, including stints with Cora’s parents in But the man was a born colorist, and he secured tones and combinations of pigment that few have discovered. His process Brooklyn. In 1899, on the day of the birth of his ninth child, he was was slow and laborious; sometimes years would elapse from the again admitted to Long Island State Hospital at Flatbush. He was beginning to the end of his pictures, and many years at that. He finally taken to Middletown State Homeopathic Hospital in June piled on pigment and he scraped, he varnished and he repainted, 1901, where he was treated for dementia praecox, equivalent to the and he was likely at the last to completely change his theme once modern diagnosis of schizophrenia; he would remain there almost he had the proper foundation of paint on the canvas or panel…. continuously until his death. Initially confined to a secluded ward It was feeling, pure and simple, like the improvisations of some and treated with hot baths that were meant to have a calming effect, gifted musician, who secures the harmonies and sweetness of his he was soon placed in an open ward where he had the freedom to instrument unconsciously and intuitively.12 move about the grounds and even the nearby village.14 He continued At the same time as this burgeoning success, he was still strug- to find inspiration in his surroundings and sketched and painted with gling both financially and personally. In 1886, the popular Harper’s whatever meager materials were available to him; many works from Weekly singled out his A Waterfall, Moonlight (The Metropolitan this period are on scrap pieces of wood, board, and cigar box lids. Museum of Art) displayed at the National Academy of Design, and ( 12, 27, 28). Ironically, the moment of his greatest triumph hailed it as “the best landscape in the exhibition,” the author admitting came while he was confined to Middletown. In 1916, Brook by Moon- “an unmixed surprise at seeing attributed to him a landscape so light sold at auction from the Catholina Lambert collection for 13 powerful.” But it was also the year of the birth of his fifth child and, $20,000, setting the record for the largest amount ever paid at auc-  12 The Forbidden Season tragically, the death of his two-year-old daughter. The stress continued tion for a living American artist.15 Later that year he was finally elect- to mount until March 1890, when he suffered his first mental break- ed to full membership at the National Academy of Design. down and was taken by his brother to Flatbush Insane Asylum. The The media uproar that surrounded the record-breaking sale of brief time he spent there served him well and when he was released Brook by Moonlight brought the “mad” artist to the attention of Catholina Lambert allowed Blakelock, Cora, and their four children to the dubious Mrs. Beatrice Van Rensselaer Adams.16 She decided to come to his estate in Hawley, Pennsylvania, to convalesce. Upon their champion Blakelock and organized a Blakelock Fund, supposedly to help support the artist and his family, and mounted the landmark time in the gallery’s history sold all available paintings on opening Reinhardt Galleries exhibition. Dr. Maurice Ashley, superintendent night. The most recent examination of the artist was nearly eight years at Middletown, agreed to release Blakelock into Mrs. Adams’s care ago in a show co-organized by the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and for the day so that he could attend the opening. The media coverage National Academy Museum. As discussed in this catalogue by Dr. was remarkable and attracted more than 2,500 visitors in only two Mark D. Mitchell, Blakelock’s effect on fellow American artists has weeks, among them European royalty and influential modern artists been far reaching, inspiring succeeding generations to pursue their Robert Henri (1865–1929) and George Bellows (1882–1925).17 Sadly, own vision, or as critic James William Pattison stated in 1912, “The the monies from the Blakelock Fund mysteriously never reached sound of it has continued to vibrate and will continue. Blakelock felt Cora and the family, and Mrs. Adams was granted increasing custody a tingle of this irritant; felt it, and then invented his own style under over the artist, moving him without his wife’s or children’s knowledge the stimulus. Blakelock has no imitators, but he also sent out vibra- and denying their requests to visit him. Her publicity savvy did tions, which tingle in other artists’ nervous systems.”18 however succeed in getting Blakelock’s name on the front pages of 1. Frederick W. Morton, “Work of Ralph A. Blakelock,” Brush & Pencil 9 (February 1902): 257. newspapers nationwide, and at the time of his death he was so well 2. “Famous Painter’s Death,” Times (London), August 13, 1919, 9. known that President Woodrow Wilson sent his regrets that he could 3. Glyn Vincent, The Unknown Night: The Madness and Genius of R. A. Blakelock, An American Painter (New York: Grove Press, 2003), 55–56. 18 not attend the funeral. 4. Susielies M. Blakelock, “Western Sojourn,” in Ralph Albert Blakelock 1849 [sic]–1919 (New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1973), 27. While he has always remained somewhat on the fringe of main- 5. Vincent, 98. stream American art history, as he did in life, Blakelock has been 6. Mark D. Mitchell, “Radical Color: Blakelock in Context,” in The Unknown Blakelock, ed. Karen O. Janovy (Lincoln, NE: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 2008), 47. rediscovered and celebrated by every generation in the century since 7. Vincent, 110. his death. In 1947, he was honored with an exhibition at the Whitney 8. In 2000, Indian Encampment Along the Snake River set the artist’s current auction record at $3,525,750. Museum of American Art curated by Lloyd Goodrich. In 1969, David 9. Vincent, 167. Gebhard and Phyllis Stuurman organized the traveling exhibition The 10. Ibid., 166. 11. Ibid., 159. Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock, 1847–1919, and Dr. Norman Geske began 12. “A careful and sympathetic critic of him some years ago … who knew intimately the the monumental task of identifying and cataloguing works by the pro- man,” quoted in Morton, “Work of Ralph A. Blakelock,” 264. 13. “The Academy of Design,” Harper’s Weekly 30 (November 27, 1886): 760. lific artist. In 1996, Abraham Davidson published the most complete 14. David D. Blakelock, “The Confinement Period,” in Ralph Albert Blakelock 1849 [sic]–  13 Landscape, Evening Glow monograph on the artist, followed in 2003 by the acclaimed biography 1919, 22. 15. Lloyd Goodrich, Ralph Albert Blakelock: Centenary Exhibition (New York: Whitney The Unknown Night: The Genius and Madness of R. A. Blakelock, An Museum of American Art, 1947), 35. American Painter by Glyn Vincent. Questroyal Fine Art, whose owner 16. See “The Real Mrs. Adams” in Vincent, 254–266. 17. Vincent, 254. Louis M. Salerno has recognized the brilliance of Blakelock for decades, 18. Ibid., 297. mounted a major exhibition on the artist in 2005, which for the first 19. James William Pattison, “The Art of Blakelock,” Fine Arts Journal 27 (October 1912): 645. Collections Exhibitions

Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1867–69, 1871–73, 1879, 1880, 1882–86, 1888, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio 1977 Academy, Andover, Massachusetts Kansas City, Missouri 1894–96, 1898, 1899, 1910, 1919 Knoedler Gallery, New York, New York Fenn Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ralph Albert Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, National Academy of Design, New York, New York Blakelock Akron Art Museum, Ohio Milwaukee, Wisconsin Newark Museum, New Jersey 1917 1874, 1879, 1880, 1884 R. C. and N. M. Vose Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1981 Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York The Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, New-York Historical Society, New York Brooklyn Art Association, New York Exhibition of Paintings by Ralph Albert Blakelock Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, Ralph Albert New York Blakelock 1847–1919 — Drawings Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, Ohio North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, 1880, 1884 1919 Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, North Carolina Society of American Artists, New York, New York Union League Club, New York, New York 1987 The Arkell Museum at Canajoharie, New York Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, New York, Tennessee 1884 Oakland Museum of California, California 1922 Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919) The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois American Art Union, New York, New York Dudensing Galleries, New York, New York, A Small Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska 1995–97 Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, 1889, 1904, 1939 Group of Paintings by Ralph A. Blakelock Brooklyn Museum, New York Mitchell Museum, Mount Vernon, Illinois; Heckscher Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Laurel, Canyon, Texas The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois 1934 Museum, Huntington, New York; Pensacola Museum of Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming Mississippi Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York 1893 Findlay Galleries, Chicago, Illinois, Exhibition of Art, Florida; Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, Michigan; Small Paintings by Ralph Blakelock, NA Frye Art Museum, Seattle, Washington; Paine Art Center, The Butler Institute of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Blakelock: Visionary in Context Youngstown, Ohio 1900 1942 Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, Connecticut Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona Exposition Universelle, Paris, France (prize) Babcock Galleries, New York, New York 1998 Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Lotos Club, New York, New York 1947 Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, New York, Pennsylvania Portland Art Museum, Oregon Massachusetts Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New Ralph Albert Blakelock: Paintings 1902 York, Ralph Albert Blakelock Centenary Exhibition Charles Allis Art Museum, Milwaukee, Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery, Scripps Lotos Club, New York, New York, Exhibitions of 2004 Memorial Art Gallery of the University of in Celebration of the Centennial of the City College Wisconsin College, Claremont, California Paintings of Ralph Albert Blakelock, From the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Catskill, New Rochester, New York of New York Collection of the Honorable Frederick S. Gibbs York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: Paintings, Drawings, & The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, 1962 Watercolors 1902, 1903 American Art, Winter Park, Florida Bertha Lewison Gallery, New York, New York, Tennessee The San Diego Museum of Art, California Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 2005 Paintings by Ralph Albert Blakelock and Some of Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk Virginia Pennsylvania Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of His Contemporaries Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Genius New York 1905 The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio Nebraska —Lincoln, Nebraska 1965 Nashville Art Club, Tennessee (first annual art show, 2008–9 Contemporary Arts Association, Houston, Texas, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, traveled to Atlanta Art Club, Georgia) Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska; Two Romantic Painters: Adolphe Monticelli, French Massachusetts National Academy Museum, New York, New York, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey 1907–10, 1916, 1957 (1824–1886); Ralph Albert Blakelock, American The Unknown Blakelock Smithsonian American Art Museum, Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC (1847–1919) Dallas Museum of Art, Texas Mount Holyoke College Art Museum, Washington, DC South Hadley, Massachusetts 1913 1969 David Owsley Museum of Art at Ball State Moulton & Ricketts, Chicago, Illinois, Loan Exhibition The Art Galleries, University of California Santa Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio University, Muncie, Indiana Museum of Art at Brigham Young University, of Important Works by George Inness, Alexander Wyant, Barbara, California; California Palace of the Legion of Provo, Utah The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Ralph Blakelock Honor, San Francisco, California; Phoenix Art Museum, de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of Tucson, Arizona Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts Arizona; The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, New San Francisco, California Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts York, The Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock, 1847–1919 Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 1915 Denver Art Museum, Colorado Museum of Nebraska Art, Kearney, Nebraska 1973 Hartford, Connecticut Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California M. Knoedler & Co., New York, New York, Ralph Albert Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan Museum of the City of New York, New York The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland Blakelock, 1849 [sic]–1919 State University, East Lansing, Michigan 1916 National Academy Museum, New York, 1975 Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Galleries of Henry Reinhardt, New York, New York, Loan Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa New York Exhibition of the Paintings by Ralph Blakelock, A. N. A. Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska; Connecticut New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey, Flint Institute of Arts, Michigan National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Young’s Art Galleries, Chicago, Illinois, Blakelock — Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1847–1919 His Art and His Family  14 Landscape with Farm

 15 Moonlight  16 Early Landscape, 1867

 18 Mist in the Valley

 17 Wonder  19 Shanties, Seventh Avenue and Fifty-Fifth Street

 21 A Sawmill in the Woods

 20 At the Asylum  23 Nocturne

 22 Indian Encampment on the Lake

 24 The Netherworld  25 Middletown Landscape  26 Golden Valley

 28 Dream Within a Dream

 27 Landscape  30 Edge of the Forest

 29 Forest Interior  31 Autumn Landscape with Stream  32 Sunset

 33 Solitude (The River), 1889  34 Dancing Trees

 36 Rising Moon

 35 The Last Pond  38 Night Emerald

 37 Evening Silhouettes  39 Indian Warrior at Moonlight  40 The Apparition

 42 Indian Encampment / Three Figures, Campfire, and Tents

 41 Vanishing Tribe  43 Indian War Dance  44 Encampment in the Woods

 45 The Pow Wow  47 Indian Encampment

 46 Earthen Spirits  50 View of a Teepee at Sunrise

 49 Indian Madonna

 48 In the Primordial Woods

 51 Afterglow  52 Moonlit Landscape

 54 The Last Red Canoe

 53 Twin Trees  55 Sunset with Figure on a Road by a Garden  56 Seascape  58 Silvery Moon

 57 Summers Past  59 Valley of the Sun Works in the Catalogue

 1   Reflections Blakelock: Visionary in Context, Mitchell Young’s Art Galleries, Chicago, Illinois, Museum, Mount Vernon, Illinois; Heckscher Paintings by Eminent American Old Oil on canvas laid down on board Museum, Huntington, New York; Pensacola Masters and by Some of the Prominent 1 1 10 /4 x 12 /8 inches Museum of Art, Florida; Krasl Art Center, Living American Artists, March 1918, no. 8 Signed lower right in arrowhead: St. Joseph, Michigan; Frye Art Museum,  RA Blakelock Seattle, Washington; Paine Art Center, J. W. Young, Catalog of Paintings by  Oshkosh, Wisconsin, November 4, 1995– July 6, 1997 Eminent American Old Masters and by Private collection, Midwest Some of the Prominent Living American Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New Artists (Chicago: Young’s Art Galleries, Sale, Heritage Auctions, New York, New York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad 1918), 20–21, no. 8. York, May 7, 2016, lot 68080, from above Genius, November 15–December 15, 2005

   2 5 Abraham A. Davidson, Ralph Albert Eternal Orb Blakelock (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania Night Glow Oil on board State University Press, 1996), 62, plate 4. Oil on canvas

55/16 x 39/16 inches Glyn Vincent, The Unknown Night: The 18 x 16 inches Madness and Genius of R. A. Blakelock, An   American Painter (New York: Grove Press, The artist 2003), unnumbered color plate. Private collection Allen O. Blakelock Sr., Bakersfield, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad California, son of above, by descent, 1919 Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art,  6 Kitty Jenkins Blakelock, Sequim, 2005), 45, plate 32. Shanties in Harlem, 1874 Washington Mark D. Mitchell, “Radical Color: Blakelock Oil on canvas Private collection, North Carolina in Context,” in The Unknown Blakelock, 18 x 32 inches ed. Karen O. Janovy (Lincoln, NE: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 2008), 34, fig. 3. Signed and dated lower right:  3 R. A. Blakelock 1874 Indian Encampment at Sunset  4  Oil on canvas Stilly Night R. G. Johnston, New York, 1896 20 x 30 inches Oil on canvas I. A. Rose, New York  Otto F. Struse, New York, acquired from 303/8 x 223/16 inches above, 1906 Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana Signed lower right in arrowhead: Hon. and Mrs. Joseph P. Carroll, New York, R. A. Blakelock Henry Struse, Sharon, Connecticut New York Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, 1971  Julie and Lawrence Salander, New York George Hart, Ross, California, acquired John Farrar Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New from above, 1971 Curtis Ireland York, acquired from above, 2005 Private collection, by descent from above J. W. Young, Chicago, Illinois Private collection, New Jersey, acquired Sale, Sotheby’s, New York, New York, from above, 2005 Mrs. H. H. Dow May 20, 2015, lot 25, from above Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New James McEvoy, Detroit, Michigan  York, acquired from above, 2007 Mrs. James McEvoy, Detroit, Michigan (Possibly) Brooklyn Art Association, New  60 Illusion and Delusion Private collection, Annapolis, Maryland, Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, 1969 York, April 1874, no. 331 (as Old Shanties, acquired from above, 2007 Private collection, acquired from above, 1970 55th St., New York) Private collection, by descent from above Ralph Albert Blakelock: 1847–1919,   10  12  Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York,  19  Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New Moonrise The Forbidden Season Babcock Galleries, New York, New York, 1999 New York, acquired from above, 2012 Shanties, Seventh Avenue and Lloyd Goodrich, Ralph Albert Blakelock: Nebraska, January 14–February 9, 1975; York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Nielsen Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, The Private collection, Boston, Massachusetts, Fifty-Fifth Street Centenary Exhibition (New York: Whitney New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Oil on panel Oil on panel Genius, November 15–December 15, 2005 Self-Reliant Spirit, February 13–28, 2004 acquired from above, 2012 Museum of American Art, 1947), 51, no. 23. Jersey, May 4–June 7, 1975 33/4 x 77/16 inches 41/8 x 71/2 inches Oil on canvas Norman A. Geske, Ralph Albert Blakelock,  1 4 3 8 Signed lower right in arrowhead:  16 / x 24 / inches   8  17 1847–1919 (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska Art R. A. Blakelock The Self-Reliant Spirit (Boston: Nielson Signed lower left: R.A. Blakelock Norman A. Geske, Ralph Albert Blakelock, The artist Association, 1974), 36, 66, no. 12. Autumn Landscape Gallery, 2004). Wonder 1847–1919 (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska Art  Dr. Maurice C. Ashley, Middletown,  Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Oil on canvas Oil on panel Association, 1974), 10, 35–36, 65, no. 10. Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts New York, from above Justice M. Warley Platzek, New York, Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, 111/8 x 173/16 inches  15 715/16 x 103/8 inches 2005), 13, no. 6. Abraham A. Davidson, Ralph Albert Private collection, acquired from Private collection, Stuart, Florida, by New York Blakelock (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania Signed lower right: R. A. Blakelock above, 1981 descent from above Moonlight  National Democratic Club, New York, Karen O. Janovy, ed., The Unknown State University Press, 1996), 120, fig. 93. New York, gift from above, by 1932 Blakelock (Lincoln, NE: Sheldon Memorial  Sale, Bruneau & Co. Auctioneers, Note: Dr. Maurice C. Ashley was Oil on canvas The artist Norman A. Geske, Beyond Madness: Art Gallery, 2008), 11, no. 1. Sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, New York, n.d. Cranston, Rhode Island, July 25, 2016, superintendent at Middletown State 25 x 30 inches Dr. Maurice C. Ashley, Middletown, Coe Kerr Gallery, New York, New York The Art of Ralph Blakelock, 1847–1919 lot 13 Homeopathic Hospital from 1902 to 1923. New York, from above Richard A. Manoogian, Michigan, acquired (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, Private collection, New York, New York Signed lower left: R. A. Blakelock The artist Ralph Albert Blakelock was a from above, 1980  20 2007), 56, plate 27. Sale, Christie’s, New York, New York, Private collection, Stuart, Florida, by  patient at the hospital between 1901 and  March 5, 2009, lot 130, from above 11 descent from above Private collection, Pelham, New York At the Asylum Note: According to the Nebraska Blakelock 1919 where he was treated for dementia Henry McKnight, Minneapolis, Minnesota Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, A Spring Garden Note: Dr. Maurice C. Ashley was Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Oil on board Inventory, in 1972 Robert Vose stated, “I praecox (schizophrenia). L.D. Andrews Gallery, Sioux Falls, South New York, acquired from above superintendent at Middletown State New York, acquired from above, 2004 63/16 x 915/16 inches would rate this the greatest Blakelock I have Oil on panel Dakota, 1996 handled in forty years.” Private collection, New York, acquired 1 1 Homeopathic Hospital from 1902 to 1923. Private collection, Los Angeles, California, Signed lower right: RABlakelock 6 /4 x 8 /4 inches  13 Private collection, Connecticut from above, 2009 The artist Ralph Albert Blakelock was a acquired from above, 2004 Signed lower right in arrowhead: Sale, Christie’s, New York, New York, March patient at the hospital between 1901 and   Landscape, Evening Glow  7 R A Blakelock; on verso: A Spring Garden 3, 2005, lot 66, from above 1919 where he was treated for dementia Mrs. Ralph Albert Blakelock Oil on canvas  9 (Possibly) The Art Institute of Chicago, Indian Hunters  Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, praecox (schizophrenia). Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York, 107/16 x 163/8 inches Illinois, 1904, no. 28 (as Shanties at 55th St. Oil on panel Indian Encampment at Twilight Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York New York, acquired from above acquired from above Signed lower left in arrowhead: and 7th Ave., New York, 1868) 5 7 Oil on canvas Diane Salerno, Palisades, New York,  John F. Garrety, New York, New York, 11 /8 x 15 /8 inches Private collection, acquired from above, 1889 R.A. Blakelock 18 Ralph Albert Blakelock Centenary Exhibition 16 x 241/16 inches acquired from above acquired from above, 1926 Signed lower right in arrowhead: Alexander Gallery, New York, New York  Mist in the Valley in Celebration of the Centennial of the City  Private collection, Pennsylvania, by R.A. Blakelock Signed lower left in arrowhead: Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Oil on canvas College of New York, Whitney Museum of Private collection, Catonsville, Maryland descent from above RA Blakelock New York, acquired from above, 2002 Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New American Art, New York, New York, April  143/16 x 241/8 inches 22–May 29, 1947, no. 23 Private collection, New York, New York,  Private collection, Cleveland Heights, York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Private collection   acquired from above, 2012 Ohio, acquired from above, 2003 14 Genius, November 15–December 15, 2005 Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1849 [sic]–1919, Davis & Long Company, New York, New York Estate of Giles Whiting Landscape with Farm Sale, Doyle, New York, New York, May 21, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, New York, Museum of the City of New York, New York   Meredith Long & Company, Houston, Texas 2003, lot 83 March 3–31, 1973  21 Oil on canvas Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Richard Weimer Gallery, Darien, Bernard Danenberg Galleries, New York, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New Alexander Gallery, New York, New York Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1847–1919, 181/16 x 321/4 inches Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, A Sawmill in the Woods Connecticut, 1978 New York York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, 2005), 40, plate 27. Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Genius, November 15–December 15, 2005 Signed lower left in arrowhead: Blakelock Oil on canvas Private collection, Connecticut Private collection, Omaha, Nebraska, New York, acquired from above, 2005 Nebraska, January 14–February 9, 1975; acquired from above, 1973  New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New 231/8 x 40 inches Driscoll & Walsh Fine Art, Boston,  Private collection, Greenville, Delaware,  16 Jersey, May 4–June 7, 1975, no. 12 Massachusetts, 1986 Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, acquired from above, 2011 Signed lower right: Blakelock New York, acquired from above, 2008 Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, Early Landscape, 1867 Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Private collection, Minnesota, 1986–2003 New York   Private collection, New Jersey, acquired 2005), 32, plate 17. Genius, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Private collection, New York, 2003–5 Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Oil on canvas The artist from above, 2008 Elizabeth Wilson, review of The Nature New York, November 15–December 15, 2005   Services, New York, New York 61 16 x 121 8 inches Babcock Galleries, New York, New York / / of a Nation: Paintings of the Hudson River Private collection, New York Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, The Unknown Blakelock, Sheldon The Artist’s Garden, ca. 1880–82, oil on Hon. and Mrs. Joseph P. Carroll, New York, Monogrammed and dated lower right: School, Questroyal Fine Art, New York, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2009 Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska, Private collection, Florida, by descent canvas, 16 x 24 inches; National Gallery New York, 1999 LAKELOCK New York, acquired from above, 2005 RAB . 1867 ARTnews 107 (May 2008): 149. January 25–August 24, 2008; National from above Private collection, Florida, acquired from of Art, Washington, DC Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New  Academy Museum, New York, New York, Private collection, New York, New York, above, 2013 Babcock Galleries, New York, New York, 1996 York, acquired from above, 2007 September 25, 2008–January 4, 2009 acquired from above, 2005 Schweitzer Gallery, New York, New York Private collection, Minnesota, 1997 Private collection, Saddle River, New Private collection, Riverside, Connecticut, Private collection, New York, New York Jersey, acquired from above, 2007 Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York, New York 2013   23 Ralph Albert Blakelock NA (1847–1919)  28  Private collection, by descent from above  36  Babcock Galleries, New York, New York, Nocturne (Santa Fe: Fenn Galleries, 1977), no. 18. Dream Within a Dream Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, New Private collection, New York, New York, Rising Moon The artist From the Light of Distant Skies, A Selection Norman A. Geske, Ralph Albert Blakelock York, Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919), acquired from above Oil on panel Oil on panel Oil on canvas Harry Watrous, acquired from above of 19th Century American Paintings, April 8– (1847–1919) (New York: Salander-O’Reilly September 8–October 31, 1987, no. 14 1 1 1 7 1 1 Erickson Perkins, acquired from above, 1896 August 11, 2010, no. 41 6 /4 x 8 /4 inches Galleries, 1987), no. 44, plate 18. 5 /8 x 8 /8 inches (as Landscape) 7 /8 x 10 /16 inches  33 Signed lower left in arrowhead:  Signed lower left: R.A Blakelock Mrs. Erickson Perkins, Rochester, New York Driscoll Babcock Galleries, New York, New Note: An inscription on the reverse of this  York, Refuge and Remembrance: Landscape R.A. Blakelock Solitude (The River), 1889  Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts, 1946 work reads, “This painting was executed The artist Norman A. Geske, Ralph Albert Blakelock Painting in the Civil War Era, May 16–June  Oil on panel Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory by my father Ralph Albert Blakelock during Dr. Maurice C. Ashley, Middletown, (1847–1919) (New York: Salander-O’Reilly Museum Art Exchange, New York, New York 22, 2013 the period of his confinement at Middletown, 113/4 x 161/8 inches Services, New York, New York Private collection, Pennsylvania New York, from above Galleries, 1987), no. 14, plate 8 (as Landscape). Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts New York. It came into my possession after Signed lower right: R.A. Blakelock; Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Avery Galleries, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania Private collection, Stuart, Florida, by Abraham A. Davidson, Ralph Albert M. Knoedler & Co., New York, New York,  22 his death in 1919. Allen O. Blakelock.” on verso: Solitude by R. A. Blakelock 1889 New York, acquired from above, 2004 descent from above Blakelock (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania by 1973 State University Press, 1996), 35, 60, plate 2. Private collection, Bloomington, Illinois, Indian Encampment on the Lake  24 Note: Dr. Maurice C. Ashley was  Mr. and Mrs. Walter Frank, by 1993  26 acquired from above, 2004 superintendent at Middletown State Oil on canvas The Netherworld Estate of David C. Copley, La Jolla, Private collection, New York, New York Homeopathic Hospital from 1902 to 1923.   15 x 251/8 inches Golden Valley 31 California Oil on canvas Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New The artist Ralph Albert Blakelock was a Ralph Albert Blakelock Centenary Exhibition Signed lower left: Blakelock Oil on board Autumn Landscape with Stream York, acquired from above, 2011 161/16 x 241/8 inches patient at the hospital between 1901 and 1  in Celebration of the Centennial of the 5 /2 x 9 inches Oil on canvas 34 Private collection, New York, New York,  Signed lower right in arrowhead: 1919 where he was treated for dementia City College of New York, Whitney Museum Signed lower right: R. A. Blakelock 1 1 acquired from above, 2014 Steven Straw, Inc., Newburyport, RA Blakelock praecox (schizophrenia). 18 /8 x 32 /16 inches Dancing Trees of American Art, New York, New York, April   22–May 29, 1947, no. 6 Massachusetts  Signed lower right: Blakelock Oil on panel Bernard and S. Dean Levy, New York Mrs. Ralph Albert Blakelock  29 77/8 x 97/8 inches M. Knoedler & Co., New York, New York, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Private collection, New York, New York  Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1849 [sic]–1919, Connecticut, 1956 Alfred A. Funai, New York Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York, Forest Interior Alexander Gallery, New York, New York  acquired from above March 3–31, 1973 The Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock, 1847– Private collection, Connecticut Oil on canvas Private collection, New York, New York  25 Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, 1919, The Art Galleries, University of John F. Garrety, New York, New York, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Sale, Christie’s, New York, New York, 421/8 x 301/8 inches New York, acquired from above, 2004 Middletown Landscape Harbor, New York, Long Island Collections, California Santa Barbara, California, September 27, 2004, lot 63, from above acquired from above, 1926 Signed lower right: R. A. Blakelock Private collection, Philadelphia, acquired  35 The Gilded Age to the 1990s, May 29– January 7–February 2, 1969; California Oil on board Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Private collection, Pennsylvania, by from above, 2005 Palace of the Legion of Honor, San  September 12, 1993 (as Moonrise) 45/8 x 61/8 inches descent from above The Last Pond New York, acquired from above  Francisco, California, February 15–March Private collection, Midwest Oil on board  Private collection, Massachusetts, 2005, On verso: R.A.B. Private collection, New York, New York, 16, 1969; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, acquired from above, 2012 Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New 3 5 Ralph Albert Blakelock 1849 [sic]–1919 March 24–April 27, 1969; The Heckscher acquired from above  Sale, Heritage Auctions, New York, New 4 /4 x 9 /16 inches York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad (New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1973), 16, York, May 7, 2016, lot 68077, from above Initialed lower left: A.1 Museum, Huntington, New York, May 17–  The artist Genius, November 15–December 15, 2005 fig. 12.  27 June 23, 1969, no. 62 Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New Allen O. Blakelock Sr., Sequim, Washington,    30   Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad son of above, by descent, 1919 Landscape The artist Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad 3 Genius, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Genius, November 15–December 15, 2005 Moonlight, 1890, oil on canvas, 16 /8 x Museum Art Exchange, New York, New York Oil on board Edge of the Forest Dr. Maurice C. Ashley, Middletown, New York, November 15–December 14, 2005 Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, 241/8 inches; Carnegie Museum of Art, 7 7  Private collection, Nassau County, New York 7 /8 x 11 /8 inches Oil on panel 2005), 49, plate 36. New York, from above Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania  Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Initialed lower right: A-1; on verso: 155/8 x 241/16 inches Private collection, Stuart, Florida, by  Note: In M. Knoedler & Co.’s 1973 Lloyd Goodrich, Ralph Albert Blakelock: Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, R.A. Blakelock fecit. Signed lower right in arrowhead:  32 descent from above M. Knoedler & Co., New York, New York, exhibition catalogue, this work is Centenary Exhibition (New York: Whitney 2005), 44, plate 31. R. A Blakelock Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1849 [sic]–1919,  Sunset Note: Dr. Maurice C. Ashley was described as “a fine example of the Museum of American Art, 1947), 44, 52, no. 6. John Zeaman, “Visions of a Troubled  superintendent at Middletown State marvelously haunting quality of stillness March 3–31, 1973 The artist Oil on canvas David Gebhard and Phyllis Stuurman, The Genius: An American Original Gets His Homeopathic Hospital from 1902 to 1923. and solitude that is the artist’s finest work.” Spector collection, Petaluma, California Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock, 1847–1919 Fenn Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Private collection, great-great-grandson 211/4 x 393/8 inches Due,” review of Ralph Albert Blakelock: The artist Ralph Albert Blakelock was a (Santa Barbara: University of California, Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1977, no. 18 of above, by descent The Great Mad Genius, Questroyal Fine Art, Adamson-Duvannes Galleries, Downey, Signed lower left in arrowhead: patient at the hospital between 1901 and  37 1969), 27, 63, no. 62. New York, New Jersey Record, November Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, New Sale, Treadway/Toomey Auctions, Oak California R.A. Blakelock 1919 where he was treated for dementia Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad 25, 2005, 28. York, Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919), Park, Illinois, March 7, 2015, lot 543, [With] Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, praecox (schizophrenia). Evening Silhouettes  Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, September 8–October 31, 1987, no. 44 from above New York, from above, 2005 Oil on canvas laid down on board James Marshall, Brooklyn, New York, 2005), 4, no. 2.  Private collection, Kensington, California by 1927 16 x 24 inches Ralph Albert Blakelock 1849 [sic]–1919 Mrs. Roger Scholle, Scarsdale, New York, Signed lower left in arrowhead: (New York: M. Knoedler & Company, 1973), by descent from above R. A. Blakelock 23, fig. 12.  38   44  47   51   54 Night Emerald Macbeth Galleries, New York, New York Encampment in the Woods Indian Encampment The Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock, 1847– Afterglow Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, The Last Red Canoe 1919, The Art Galleries, University of New York, by 1998 Oil on board David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, Oil on canvas Oil on canvas laid down on panel Oil on canvas Oil on panel California Santa Barbara, California, 3 5 New York 3 3 1 1 1 1 Ivana B. Salander, New York, New York 7 3 8 /4 x 8 /8 inches 16 /16 x 24 /16 inches 18 /2 x 30 /2 inches January 7–February 2, 1969; California 16 /8 x 20 /16 inches 14 /8 x 21 /4 inches Private collection, New Mexico, acquired Signed lower left in arrowhead: Signed lower left: R A Blakelock Signed lower left in arrowhead: Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Signed lower left in arrowhead: Signed lower right in arrowhead:  42 from above, 2012 R. A. Blakelock  R. A. Blakelock Francisco, California, February 15–March R.A Blakelock R.A Blakelock Indian Encampment / Three Figures, 16, 1969; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona,   Sale, Hyde Park Country Auctions,    Campfire, and Tents March 24–April 27, 1969; The Heckscher Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, New Private collection, Connecticut Poughkeepsie, New York, 2008 Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, New York Museum, Huntington, New York, May 17– Mrs. D. M. Keith Private collection, Scottsdale, Arizona Oil on panel York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: Paintings, 1998  Private collection, Larchmont, New York, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New June 23, 1969, no. 76 (as Indian Encampment) Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 8 x 12 inches acquired from above York, acquired from above, 2003 New York  R. C. and N. M. Vose Gallery, Boston,  Catskill, New York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: 55 Signed lower right: RAB[illegible] Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Private collection, Bell Canyon, California, Private collection, New York Massachusetts, Exhibition of Paintings David Gebhard and Phyllis Stuurman, The Paintings, Drawings, & Watercolors, May 1– Sunset with Figure on a Road New York, acquired from above, 2008 acquired from above, 2003 by Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1917  Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock, 1847–1919 Sale, Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North October 31, 2004 by a Garden Private collection, Annapolis, Maryland, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Carolina, March 13–14, 2015, lot 81, Mrs. Van Rensselaer Adams, New York (Santa Barbara: University of California,  Oil on panel  acquired from above, 2013 New York, acquired from above, 2005 1969), 29, no. 76 (as Indian Encampment). from above 39 August Propersi, Mount Vernon, New York, Glyn Vincent, The Unknown Night: The 161/16 x 241/8 inches Diane Salerno, Palisades, New York,  Indian Warrior at Moonlight 1974 Madness and Genius of R. A. Blakelock, An  acquired from above Signed lower right: R.A. Blakelock 45  Young’s Art Galleries, Chicago, Illinois, Oil on panel Sale, Sotheby’s Arcade, New York, New York, 49 American Painter (New York: Grove Press,  Blakelock — His Art and His Family, April  March 31, 2004, lot 89 The Pow Wow Indian Madonna 2003), unnumbered color plate. 18 x 14 inches 27–May 13, 1916 Doll & Richards, Boston, Massachusetts Sale, Doyle, New York, New York, October 1, Oil on panel Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New Note: In a letter dated April 3, 2012, Glyn Signed lower right in arrowhead: Oil on panel 2014, lot 73 5 York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad  Vincent attests that “the painting’s size, Sale, Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North R.A. Blakelock 5 x 8 /8 inches 81/8 x 61/8 inches Genius, November 15–December 15, 2005 style, subject matter, tone, coloring and Carolina, July 8–9, 2016, lot 783 Signed lower right in arrowhead: J. W. Young, Catalog of the Works of  Signed lower right in arrowhead: brushwork, conform to certain types of  43 RA Blakelock  R. A. Blakelock, N. A. and of His Daughter R.A. Blakelock work Blakelock completed between  Private collection, Beverly, Massachusetts Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Marian Blakelock (Chicago: Young’s Art 56 Indian War Dance  1885 and 1899. The painting exhibits his Estate of above Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art,  Galleries, 1916), 20–21. Oil on panel characteristic handling of paint, using Seascape William Doyle Gallery, New York, 1978 2005), 10, plate 4. Private collection Sale, Kaminski Auctions, Beverly, Note: The 1916 Young’s Art Galleries impulsive dabs of white over darker Oil on board laid down on board 55/8 x 91/4 inches Massachusetts, November 30–December 1, Private collection Private collection, by descent from above catalogue attests that “this artist has never pigment to create the silhouettes of trees, 77 8 x 113 4 inches Signed lower left in arrowhead: / / 2013, lot 2114, from above Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York,  48 Biltmore Galleries, Scottsdale, Arizona, left us a finer piece of glowing color than his striated skies, his use of multiple layers R. A. Blakelock New York, acquired from above, 2012 this picture. The luminous amber tint of Signed indistinctly lower left In the Primordial Woods acquired from above of under-paint to achieve the unique the sky reflects in the little pool in the   40  Private collection, Bloomington, J. N. Bartfield Art Galleries, New York, bluish-green timber of his twilight skies.” Oil on canvas foreground and illumining the ground Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, Illinois, acquired from above, 2013 New York, acquired from above, 2014 The artist The Apparition 173/4 x 237/8 inches just back of it makes the richest possible New York setting for the autumn trees, with Indians  53 Mrs. Ralph Albert Blakelock Oil on canvas  Signed lower right in arrowhead: Hon. and Mrs. Joseph P. Carroll, New York, 46  50 and wig-wams grouped underneath in Allen O. Blakelock Sr., Bakersfield, 2415/16 x 301/16 inches RA Blakelock Twin Trees New York Earthen Spirits a way to give a perfect composition. California, the artist’s son, from above Signed lower right: RA Blakelock  View of a Teepee at Sunrise Oil on board laid down on canvas Private collection Both Mrs. Blakelock and her daughter Kitty Jenkins Blakelock, Sequim, Washington Oil on panel Oil on canvas 151/8 x 20 inches  George F. McMurray, Glendale, California Marian were charmed with this picture  1 Private collection, North Carolina 12 x 17 /4 inches 161/4 x 241/8 inches when they saw it some time ago.” Signed lower right in arrowhead: Private collection, Pennsylvania (as Indian Encampment) Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York, New Signed lower right in arrowhead: R. A Blakelock  Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, Signed lower left in arrowhead: York, Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919), R.A. Blakelock on long term loan from above, 1970s–80s R. A. Blakelock   The Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock, 1847–  September 8–October 31, 1987, no. 24 52 41 1919, The Art Galleries, University of  Salander-O’Reilly Galleries, New York,  John Alden Philbrick Jr., New York,  Moonlit Landscape California Santa Barbara, California, Vanishing Tribe David Findlay Jr. Gallery, New York, New York New York, by 1950 Private collection, by 1999 Oil on panel January 7–February 2, 1969; California Oil on panel Norman A. Geske, Ralph Albert Blakelock New York Private collection, New York Withers Fine Art, Scottsdale, Arizona 5 5 Ann Philbrick Knight, Gladwyne, Palace of the Legion of Honor, San 5 1 (1847–1919) (New York: Salander-O’Reilly 6 /8 x 7 /16 inches 8 /8 x 12 /8 inches Sale, Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Pennsylvania, by descent from above Francisco, California, February 15–March Galleries, 1987), no. 24, plate 16. Questroyal Fine Art, New York, New York, Signed lower left in arrowhead: Signed lower right in arrowhead: Carolina, March 13–14, 2015, lot 79, Private collection, Bryn Mawr, 16, 1969; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona, Abraham A. Davidson, Ralph Albert acquired from above, 2005 R. A. Blakelock; initialed lower right: R.A. Blakelock; on verso in arrowhead: from above Pennsylvania, by descent from above March 24–April 27, 1969; The Heckscher Blakelock (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania Private collection, New Jersey, acquired R. A. B. R.A Blakelock Museum, Huntington, New York, May 17– State University Press, 1996), 78–79, plate 6. from above, 2005 June 23, 1969 Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1847–1919, 1919 where he was treated for dementia  60 Hudson River Landscape, 1867 Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, praecox (schizophrenia). Illusion and Delusion Indian Dancer Nebraska, January 14–February 9, 1975; Oil on board Indian Encampment /Three Riders New Jersey State Museum, Trenton,  58 New Jersey, May 4–June 7, 1975 117/8 x 121/16 inches Indian in an Autumnal Landscape Silvery Moon Indian with a Canoe   Oil on canvas laid down on board Infernal Night David Gebhard and Phyllis Stuurman, The The artist 183 16 x 24 inches Landscape with Figures and Boat Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock, 1847–1919 / Dr. Maurice C. Ashley, Middletown, (Santa Barbara: University of California, Signed lower left in arrowhead: New York, from above Landscape with Shepherd R. A. Blakelock Landscape, Long Island 1969), 85, no. 106. Private collection, Stuart, Florida, by Norman A. Geske, Ralph Albert Blakelock,  descent from above Last Gleam 1847–1919 (Lincoln, NE: Nebraska Art Marine, Seal Rock Vose Galleries, Boston, Massachusetts Note: Dr. Maurice C. Ashley was Association, 1974), 59, no. 85. Moon Memory Private collection, New York superintendent at Middletown State Abraham A. Davidson, Ralph Albert Homeopathic Hospital from 1902 to 1923. Moonlit Lake Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Blakelock (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania The artist Ralph Albert Blakelock was a New York, acquired from above, 2003 Morning Glory State University Press, 1996), 184, fig. 126. patient at the hospital between 1901 and Mountain Landscape, 1877 Glyn Vincent, The Unknown Night: The Private collection, Bloomington, Illinois, 1919 where he was treated for dementia Near Oblivion Madness and Genius of R. A. Blakelock, An acquired from above, 2003 praecox (schizophrenia). American Painter (New York: Grove Press,  Open Landscape 2003), unnumbered color plate. Pass in the Rocky Mountains, 1877 Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New Norman A. Geske, Beyond Madness: York, Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Additional Works Portrait of Cora Bailey (Mrs. Ralph Blakelock) The Art of Ralph Blakelock, 1847–1919 Genius, November 15–December 15, 2005 in the Exhibition Ship at Sunset (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press,  Shooting the Arrow 2007), plate 31.    Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad     Snow Scene Note: According to David Gebhard and Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, Sunset Landscape Phyllis Stuurman of The Art Galleries, 2005), 53, 56, no. 41. A Meeting in the Woods Sunset on the Marsh University of California Santa Barbara, A Rider in the Park family tradition holds that Seascape The Full Moon was the last painting completed by  59 A Uintah Squaw, 1879 The Golden Orb Ralph Albert Blakelock. Valley of the Sun Amber Night The Guide Arizona Canyon Oil on board The Last Night  57 Autumn Gold The Lost Tribe 63/16 x 915/16 inches Autumn Touches Summers Past Signed lower left: R. A. Blakelock The Trout Stream Blue Indian Encampment The Waterfall Oil on board  By the Lake 63/4 x 515/16 inches Two Women in a Landscape Mrs. Ralph Albert Blakelock Emerald Pool Initialed lower left: A-1 Vibrant Landscape Macbeth Gallery, New York, New York, Encampment at Sunset Waterfall by Moonlight (Woodland Waterfall  acquired from above Encampment at Sunset with Lone Figure and Brook) The artist John F. Garrety, New York, New York, Fading Light Wedding Gift acquired from above, 1926 Dr. Maurice C. Ashley, Middletown, Fall Landscape Western Encampment New York, from above Private collection, Pennsylvania, by Fall Landscape, Catskills, with Hikers Wildflower Still Life Private collection, Stuart, Florida, by descent from above Forest Fantasy Woodland Cabin, 1864 descent from above Private collection, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2012 Forest Interior Woodland Landscape Note: Dr. Maurice C. Ashley was Forest Pond Woodland Stream superintendent at Middletown State Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, Woodland Waterfall Homeopathic Hospital from 1902 to 1923. New York, acquired from above Golden Glow The artist Ralph Albert Blakelock was a Private collection, Bloomington, Illinois, House by a Stream, 1870 Woodlands Glen with Stream patient at the hospital between 1901 and acquired from above, 2013 House in a Grove of Trees  60 Illusion and Delusion (detail)

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