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Ralph Albert Blakelock

The Artist's Garden, c. 1879/1889

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 40.6 x 61 cm (16 x 24 in.)

framed: 68.3 x 88.6 x 9.5 cm (26 7/8 x 34 7/8 x 3 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Chester Dale Collection

Accession Number

1954.4.2

Artists / Makers

Ralph Albert Blakelock (artist) American, 1847 - 1919

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right, incomplete, within broken arrowhead shape: R.A. Blakelock

Provenance

Lewis Bloomington Slocum [a.k.a. Lew Bloom]; his niece, The Oranges, New Jersey.[1] (sale, American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, New York, 29 October 1931, no. 62, as The Artist's Garden: East Orange, N.J.); Abner S. Werblin, Larchmont, New York;[2] (sale, American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, New York, 6 May 1937, no. 31, as The Artist's Garden: East Orange, N.J.); Chester Dale [1833-1962], New York; gift 1954 to NGA.

[1] Letters from Susielies M. Blakelock, 15 September and 6 December 1991 (in NGA curatorial files), provide this provenance information. Lew Bloom (Lewis Bloomington Slocum), a popular vaudeville actor, has long been identified as one of several friends who bought paintings from the artist in times of particular financial need. Blakelock reputedly provided Bloom with occasional piano accompaniment for his act. (Lloyd Goodrich [Ralph Albert Blakelock Centenary Exhibition, Exh. cat. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1947, 26] was the first to note Bloom's relationship with Blakelock.) Bloom was identified in 1931 as the first known owner of the National Gallery's painting in the American Art Association Anderson auction catalogue. Susielies Blakelock, the wife of the artist's grandson, cites extensive interviews with the artist's children as the source for the information that the two names actually refer to the same owner. She also provides the undocumented information that the painting was executed around 1882, that Bloom purchased it for $100 in 1887 or 1888, and that his niece (who used the name Slocum) inherited several of her uncle's paintings by Blakelock and later kept in touch with the artist's family. Early twentieth-century newspaper clippings that relate to Bloom (Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library) make no mention, however, of a Slocum alias and refer to several of the actor's family members as having the surname Bloom.

[2] Mary Vandergrift, Parke-Bernet Galleries, in a letter of 14 November 1964 (in NGA curatorial files), indicates that the consignor of the painting was Albert Goldberg, New York. It is unclear whether he was the owner or an agent for the owner.

Associated Names

American Art Association
American Art Association
Dale, Chester
Slocum, Lewis Bloomington
Slocum, Lewis Bloomington, Niece of
Werblin, Abner S.

Exhibition History

1943: Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1943-1951, unnumbered cat., repro.

1965: The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Technical Summary

The original medium-weight, plain-weave fabric support has been lined. The application of paint is varied and complex. A thin, light ground was applied overall, with a dark green wash laid over the ground in the lower half of the composition. Areas of impasto, usually corresponding to tufts of foliage, were built up into considerable relief. A resinlike layer blankets this lower half - thinner and translucent over the areas of green wash and thicker in the troughs between impasto. The islands of impasto rise up through this layer, often to the surface. Wrinkling and traction crackle are visible in the brown paint below the resinous layer. The sky is composed of variegated layers of pale and deeper blue paint, with additional resinlike coats and a blue glaze. Crackle has also developed throughout the thickly painted sky, which has been painted over the darker foreground area. Considerable and discolored overpainting and inpainting is apparent: throughout the sky; at the tree line; and along the bottom and lateral edges. Damage in the center of the sky was repaired prior to acquisition, resulting in a dull clouding of darker paint. The varnish is moderately discolored.

Bibliography

1943: Paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. Philadelphia, 1943: unpaginated, repro., as The Artist's Garden, East Orange, New Jersey.

1964: Gerdts, William H. "Ralph Albert Blakelock in New Jersey." Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society 82 (April 1964): 126.

1965: Paintings other than French in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 37, repro.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 18, repro.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 559, no. 849, color repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 29, repro.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: no. 32, color repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 183, repro. 184.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 557, no. 846, color repro.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 116, no. 35, color repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 34, repro.

1996: Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 41-45, color repro.