Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-09-12
16Sfltt IOWA
SREPCBCAN MARSArITOWN IOWA. SEPTEMBER I. 1913


Tho life OF Ralph Albert Blakelock.
painter. was probably the most tragic
illustration of tho statement that for.
tune has rarely condescended to be the
companion OF geniusS that America
! has ever seen.' He starved. suffered
and became insane while his family,
II wife and nine children, was reduced
To penury because tho world did not
recognize his ability. For seventeen
years he languished In sanitarium
to regain his reason. but he only partly
recovered and he never comprehended
the recognition that finally came to
him.
When boy. Blakelock's father de-
termined on a physicians career for
his son. but the artistic spirit inherent
in the boy rebelled. He wanted to
paint and he learned how without the
aid Of a teacher. Naure was the
theme Of his early paintings, and in
the out of doors he studied that art
alone.
Later. Blakelock "A young man, re-
turned TO New York, where no had
been born IN iSi7. He married and
| became the father OF a large family.
The products of his brush did not
bring him sufficient emolument to en-
able him TO support his family, and the
painter became disheartened, Thirty
three paintings were sold to a Third
avenue junk dealer for. 800. They
now adorn the walls of the Metropoli-
tan museum and the Corcoran art gal
lery in Washington.
BlakeIock's eighth child was born In
a home of absolute poverty. To
friend he took his troubles. requesting
him to purchase a landscape, Moon
light. The friend offered him $50, to
be paid in instruments with IS down.
Recently tho same canvas sold for
$4,000.
The ninth child was born. Again
the urge Of poverty was felt to the dis
traction Of the father A collector,
who had been endeavoring to collect
some old debts from the artist, COM
missioned Blakelock to paint pic
ture. Offering him 5000. But when the
task was accomplished, he offered
aim a smaller sum. Instead the ar
fist refused. But hunger drove him
back again TO the collector, and he re-
ceived even q lower price than the
second offer. Blakelock went home:
counted the money; showed IL to his
wife and then rose In fury and cast
it into a stove. He was insane.
Sixteen years passed while the ar
fist remained in a sanatorium. His
wife. meanwhile. lived in hut in the
New York mountains, for which she
paid 81 a month. His oldest son be-
came an ice cutter and did more to
earn actual money than his father
had. For years the husband and wife
did not see each other because she was
too poor to buy ticket to the town in
which the sanatorium was located.
When -Blakelock was partly recov-
cred. he left the sanatorium. So years
old and weighing only ninety pounds.
His meeting with his family was pa
thetic: his meeting with his paintings
was declared even more so. A fund
was raised which provided for the ar
list and his family. And out Of this
fund grew e movement toward subsi-
dizing American art so that the In
justice might not be repeated. But the
artirts mind began to weaken again.
The eighth Of last June he was taken
to the private camp in the Adirondacks
in the hope that he could at least en-
Joy life in the open he once loved and
painted.
Blakelock's daughter. Miriam, follow
ed her fathers example In art and
tragedy. She became a talented paint
or. and like her father was self taught.
She also became insane.