The Canoe depicts a man traveling down a lake surrounded by a view of rolling hills, trees, and lush vegetation at sunset. The painting glows with moody shades of brown, red, green, and yellow which heighten the drama and tension of the scene. There is both a feeling of gentle solitude and a sense of overwhelming awe of the vast and majestic wilderness.
While most artists traveled to Europe to gain a wider and deeper appreciation of art in the nineteenth century, Blakelock traveled to the west in search of beauty, finding refuge in nature and among Native American encampments. Ralph Albert Blakelock’s unique, visionary landscapes captured the spiritual and psychological sides of nature. While he would have bursts of success—though never consistent—during his lifetime, Blakelock’s art would live on to be a source of inspiration for ambitious explorers traveling through the American frontier.
Evening depicts a hazy moon silhouette as it reflects on the landscape, illuminating a village below. The foliage that frames the edge of the canvas glows in monochromatic dark yellow-greens. The landscape is richly textured with carefully painted plants and shrubbery, and a lone bird can be seen perched atop a tree limb.
Similar to painters in the Hudson River and Barbizon Schools of art, Ralph Albert Blakelock’s paintings often provide an intimate view into the inner workings of his psyche. He captured poetic scenes of wilderness imbued with feelings of loneliness, melancholy and isolation— they were as beautiful as they were haunting; mystical, yet imaginative.
While he struggled with depression and mental health disorders throughout most of his adult life and career, Blakelock’s innate ability as an artist to discover a new awareness of space, color, and form, as well as how he treated his subject matter with extraordinary sensitivity remains at the heart of his artistic legacy.
Sophistication is a typical example of Harry Willson Watrous’s numerous relatively large paintings of attractive women made between 1905 and around 1918. These women, many with the same red hair as this model, often wear dark clothing and pose in profile against a light background. This contrast and the close viewpoint emphasize shape and contour rather than perspective, although Watrous by no means abandons modeling. The women of this series sport fashionable garb; the svelte lines of this model are enhanced by the tailored suit that came into fashion in the 1890s. The feathered hat complements her graceful silhouette, as does the elegant chair, while the almost primitive paintings on the wall behind her act as a witty foil. This painting is as modern as Watrous dared to be.
Martin was a transitional figure in American landscape painting during the second half of the nineteenth century. Along with other artists, he was a link between painters of the Hudson River School, the American followers of the French Barbizon artists, and eventually Impressionism. He is known for his melancholy scenes and poetic landscapes with subtle color and treatment of light.
A cursory look at The River Road validates the artist’s title of this work. This painting is a view of a short stretch of a dirt road alongside an expansive portion of the Hudson River. The overall style of this painting is typical of the late Hudson River School with the use of lighting in the Luminist style.
Like many of John Frederick Kensett’s mature works, The Morning Mist does not shout, it whispers. His view of a lake, mountains, and sky suggests the gentle poetry of nature. The distant rower on the left serves as a reminder that nineteenth-century Americans liked to escape the pressures of modern urban life by retreating to unspoiled country. Presumably, a landscape painting like this, hung on the walls of a city home, could serve as an ever-present substitute for such a restorative experience.
To draw the viewer into this magic realm, Kensett establishes a viewpoint at the water’s edge with points of land, curving shadows, and swirling clouds. Warm, glowing colors and trails of mist set the proper mood, while a careful placement of land masses gives a feeling of equilibrium and enclosure. Kensett’s landscape evokes a benign nature, compliant with the needs of man. Morning Mist is one of many works left unfinished in Kensett’s studio at the time of his death.
Robert Crannell Minor (American, 1839-1904)
The Long Shadows
In The Long Shadows, a solitary figure is seen walking down a lane through a wooded area. Robert Crannell Minor’s Barbizon training is apparent in this painting with a dark foreground and illuminated middle ground, as well as loose brushwork. Diagonal lines throughout the painting keep the composition of the scene active: the line of clouds parallel the line of trees; the V-shape of the trees echo the V-shape of the flying bird. The zigzag movements provide activity amidst stillness and the calmness and power of unspoiled nature. The lone figure provides a focal point in the center of work, and the viewer’s eye is drawn down a path of reddish brown shrubbery as atmospheric light creeps between the shadows of the trees. Minor rarely placed figures in his softly-rendered landscapes, but when he did they appear microscopic like the one seen here, swallowed almost completely by the presence of nature in its overwhelming splendor.
Rockingham County, New Hampshire is a romantic landscape of northeastern valleys. There is a wide stream in the middle foreground. Large boulders of varying sizes and shapes help to bring the eye into the painting. The colors are muted greens and browns with blues, silvers, and grays in the stream and blues and muted whites in the sky and clouds. The painting conveys quietness, but the shadings of the clouds provide contrast and give a suggestion of changes coming.
William Mason Brown painted landscapes, like those seen here, early in his career. He was meticulous and precise with details, a practice he learned from the Hudson River School style of art. Brown would continue to paint in this manner to create almost photographic paintings of fruit and flowers as a successful still life artist for the remainder of his career.
In this genre scene, a black-robed priest warms his feet by the brazier, while a serving girl clad in bright red and blue Spanish national dress prepares to serve him a warm beverage. The priest holds a book in his hand but watches the serving girl as she works.
In The Red Portfolio, Jehan-Georges Vibert pokes fun at his favorite victim, a cardinal. The main point of this painting is the immense pride of an unidentified but elegant cardinal standing self-consciously in the council chamber of Louis VX at Fontainebleau. His air of self-importance, as he strikes a pose before an elegant fireplace, swelling his chest to better display his royal decorations, implies that he fancies himself a successor to the great cardinal-ministers of France, Richelieu, Mazarin, and Fleury.
Cleary the cardinal’s mind is more occupied with this world than the next. His attire is fashioned of the most expensive materials, ermine, silk, gold, and lace – a match for the elegant Rococo interior. Yet the shadow if a beard – it is already four, according to the clock – implies human fallibility behind the impeccable façade. Even his perfect grooming is slightly flawed by a wig that does not quite cover his dark sideburns.
