Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919)
Nymphs in Moonlight, ca. 1885
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Oil on canvas
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16 1/4 x 24 1/4 inches
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Signed lower left in arrowhead: R. A. Blakelock; signed lower right in arrowhead: Blakelock
Provenance
- (Probably) James Gill, Springfield, Massachusetts, likely before 1919
- Charles Allen Stone
- Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop Hasley, bequest from above
- Suzanne Davidson, bequest from above
- Mrs. P. Campbell, (likely) bequest from above
- Babcock Galleries, New York, New York, acquired from above, 1951
- Joseph Katz, Baltimore, Maryland, acquired from above, 1958
- [With] Babcock Galleries, New York, New York
- Elizabeth Ames, acquired from above, 1960
- Private collection, New York, New York
- Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2002
- Private collection, New York, acquired from above, 2005
- Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, acquired from above, 2018
- Collection of J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox, acquired from above
Exhibited
Fine Arts Society of San Diego, California, December 1951–February 1952
[With] Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, October–November 1952 (for consideration of purchase)
Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Genius, Questroyal Fine Art, LLC, New York, New York, November 15–December 15, 2005
The Color of the Moon: Lunar Painting in American Art, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, February 8–May 12, 2019; James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, June 1–September 8, 2019
Literature
Ralph Albert Blakelock: The Great Mad Genius (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, 2005), 18, 54, no. 8.
Important American Paintings, Volume XIX: Art Changes Everything (New York: Questroyal Fine Art, 2018), pl. 5.
Laura Vookles and Bartholomew F. Bland, eds., The Color of the Moon: Lunar Painting in American Art (Yonkers, NY: Hudson River Museum, 2019), 120–21, no. 10.
Note
This painting has been authenticated and catalogued by the University of Nebraska Inventory as NBI-1600, category II.
George Bellows remarked that Blakelock “made a strong impression not only upon American art, but upon the art of the world.”[1] Marsden Hartley said his work was a “plausible basis for a genuine American art.”[2] Blakelock was abstract expressionist Franz Kline’s favorite artist and both Andy Warhol and Jamie Wyeth collected his work.
[1] Glyn Vincent, The Unknown Night: The Genius and Madness of R. A. Blakelock, an American Painter (New York: Grove Press, 2003), 303.
[2] Donna M. Cassidy, “Localized Glory: Marsden Hartley as New England Regionalist,” in Marsden Hartley, ed. Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press in association with the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, 2002), 180.
catalogue
A Collector’s Journey
The catalogue, A Collector’s Journey, is designed specifically for museum directors and curators, by focusing solely on the appearance, provenance, and exhibition history of each painting. The collections are dynamic and will continue to expand as additional exceptional and historically important paintings are acquired.
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