Silent Night
Ralph Albert BLAKELOCK
(American, 1847-1919)
Silent Night
Date1889
Mediumoil on wood panel
Dimensionsoverall: 10 x 7 3/8 in. (25.4 x 18.7 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Gift of Mrs. Alfred B. Clark
Object number1962.37
Subject(s)
- trees, landscape
- Moon
Collection
- 20th century American
Sub-Collection(s)
- Romanticism (late)
- Symbolism
On View
On viewLabel TextThe tragic story of Blakelock’s ill-fated career reads like a dramatic novel. Diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1899, he spent the next two decades of his life in the New York State Hospital for the Insane. Ironically, his moonscapes – typified by a dark moody palette with pigment thickly applied as seen here – suddenly began to mount in popularity. Confined because of his mental illness, Blakelock and his family never reaped any financial reward from his celebrity.
