The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-11-11
PITIFUL S T O RY OF
RALPH ALBERT
BLAKELOCK
CAS- Told in Common Cause"
Australian Labor Paper)

Ralph Albert Blakelock is at last
being acclaimed one of Americas
greatest painters. "At last"-be-
cause, true to the manner in which
genius is treated under capitalism,
Blakelock has suffered poverty and
worse than poverty throughout his
life. The remarkable thing is that
even some sort of second-handed
recognition should be accorded him
before he leaves his art behind him
forever.
Blakelock is SO years of age, His
whole life as an artist, like that
of his daughter, who followed him
as a painter, was one long fight
against suffocation by the evil in
fluences that dominate in society
organized on a bourgeois profit
grabbing line.
Driven Insane
In this fight Blakelock lost out
He is now patient at the New
York State hospital for the insane
at Middletown, driven there by the
rotten system of business that char
acterises "the best of all possible
societies." His advanced age makes
it highly improbable that he will ever
be restored to his former compre-
hension of art and life.
True to bourgeois antecedents, a
few persons in New York are now
organizing for the purpose of recon-
nensing the family of Blakelock for
the cruelty inflicted upon him and
them by the insane spirit of capital
list greed
AS ever, a belated spreading of
charity takes the place with these
people of a rational social proven
ton of such tragedies. Yet these
are the same ladies and gentlemen
whose tender hearts tremble with
preconceived anxiety for the artist
"under Socialism,"
Blakelock has been in the Middle
town asylum for 16 years. In all
that time he was never visited by
his wife, for the simple reason that
until recently she could never scrape
together enough money to pay the
railroad fare.
Who Gains?
Yet Blakelock's paintings, for
which the artist received a paltry
sum that literally maddened him, are
today selling for thousands of dol
lars each. Spectators have coined
fortunes out of Blakelock's misery,
and vulgar bourgeois art collectors
have by it been enabled to shine
prominently before the members of
their social set.
For one of his masterpieces
Moonlight" Blakelock received 9100,
generally admitted to be the highest
price he ever got for any of his crea-
tions. The same picture recently
brought G2,S00. 1t was bought by
ex-senator William A. Clark. An
other masterpiece, "The Brook by
Moonlight" for which Blakelock re-
ceived even less than for his "Moon-
light" was recently sold for $4,000.
The lowest price Blakelock ever
received, so far as is now remem-
bered, was $40 for 33 pictures
1877 1-2 apiece! They were pur-
chased by a secondhand dealer.
His Mind Snaps
The break of Blakelock's mind
came just before the arrival of his
ninth child. So great was the fam
ilv's poverty at that trying time that
Mrs. Blakelock sent for a picture
dealer, who had frequently purchased
Blakelock's pictures, entreating him
to come to the house and look over
the pictures to see if there was not
something he would care to purchase.
The dealer came, but after exam
ming the picture said there was
nothing there he could take. He did,
however, agree to pay $50 for one
subject if Blakelock would paint it
over larger canvas. The artist ac-
cepted the commission. but when he
delivered the picture he was told by
the dealer: "Well, ! see you didn't hit
it off this time. That certainly is
not the picture / offered $50 for. /