Nebraska Blakelock Inventory

Restrictions: Interested patrons and researchers must contact Dr. Norman Geske, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, for access to the materials.

Copyright: To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. For more information see the Use Guidelines

Preferred Citation: Nebraska Blakelock Inventory (MS 227). Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries.

Ralph Albert Blakelock was born in New York City in 1847. He studied art at the Free Academy and Cooper Union but did not graduate. He continued to develop his skills in landscape painting and held the first exhibition of his work at the National Academy of Design in 1868. He is considered a part of the Hudson River School, which consisted of painters that portrayed romantic landscapes in the eastern United States. Throughout his life, Blakelock suffered from melancholia and spent the years from 1899 until 1916 in an institution. After one of Blakelock's paintings sold at public auction for $30,000, the popularity of his work increased and many forgeries of his work were created. Blakelock died at age 72 in 1919.

Scope and Content: 

The Blakelock materials contain files relating to the more than 1800 works attributed to the artist. The materials are arranged into five categories: 1. those paintings with uninterrupted provenance; 2. those paintings with incomplete provenance which by comparison with works listed in category one can be accepted as Blakelock's work; 3. those which for reasons of condition or stylistic discrepancy must be regarded as questionable; 4. those that are clearly not the work of the artist; 5. works in public collections not directly examined by the inventory which may properly belong in one of the four preceeding categories.

Subjects: 

Blakelock, Ralph Albert 1847-1919

Painting, American

Painting, Modern -- 19th Century