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Biography of Ralph Albert Blakelock
Name: Ralph Albert Blakelock
Birth Date: October 15, 1847
Death Date: August 9, 1919
Place of Birth: New York, New York, United States
Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Occupations: painter, artist
Ralph Albert Blakelock
The American painter Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919) was one of the most original romantic artists of late-19th-century America.Ralph Blakelock was born on Oct. 15, 1847, in New York City. After a year and a half of college he dropped out to take up painting. Entirely self-taught, by the age of 20 he was painting competent landscapes and exhibiting in the National Academy of Design. In his early 20s he journeyed to the Far West, wandering far from civilization and spending some time among the Indians; this experience resulted in a lifelong fascination with the forest and its Indian inhabitants.Blakelock's early landscapes were relatively literal and tight, in the style of the Hudson River school of painters, though without their grandiosity. As he matured, he developed a more intimate, subjective style. His favorite theme was the deep forest with its wildness and solitude; the hours were sunset, twilight, or night--seldom full …showed first 150 words…
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…showed last 150 words…to paint until his death on Aug. 9, 1919; however, his work was of lesser quality.Almost as soon as Blakelock went into the first psychiatric hospital, his work began to receive recognition. Within a few years paintings he had sold so cheaply were resold for several thousand dollars, benefiting neither Blakelock nor his family. By 1903 his work was being forged, so that eventually there were many more fakes than genuine works. Such was the final ironical touch to one of the most tragic stories in American art. Further Reading The first book on Blakelock is Elliott Daingerfield, Ralph Albert Blakelock (1914). A more recent source of biographical information is Glyn Vincent's The Unknown Night: The Genius and Madness of R. A. Blakelock (2003). The most complete account of his life and art, based on previously unpublished sources, is Lloyd Goodrich's catalog of the Blakelock Centenary Exhibition (1947) of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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