Ralph Blakelock spent the years 1869 - 72 in the West where he painted a number of topographical scenes. On his return East, he evolved the aesthetic that was to dominate his art - quiet evening scenes, large oak trees silhouetted against a sunset or moonlight glow, often with Indian camps sparkling in the dark beneath. Apparently predisposed to melancholia, the artist suffered a mental collapse in 1891 and was institutionalized briefly. Throughout the 1890s his emotional state gradually deteriorated, manifesting in delusions of grandeur and eccentric dress. A violent episode in 1899 resulted in the artist's uninterrupted confinement until 1916, after which he was hospitalized periodically until his death. Ironically the recognition that he had long sought came to him only after he was institutionalized.
Despite personal charm, wealth, and an unrivaled reputation for high-style caricatures of his celebrity friends, Barton could not escape his chronic manic depression and took his own life shortly before his fortieth birthday in 1931. But he had helped to invent a new type of celebrity caricature that was too stylish to be cruel. "It is not the caricaturist's job to be penetrating," he noted. "It is his job to put down the figure a man cuts before his fellows in his attempt to conceal the writhings of his soul."
Self-portrait Ralph Barton
Watercolor and graphite on paperboard mounted on illustration board, circa 1925
"The human soul would be a hideous object if it were possible to lay it bare," caricaturist Ralph Barton wrote in 1926. In his self-portrait, Barton reveals what he usually took pains to conceal: the writhing turmoil of the psyche. Inscribed "with apologies to Greco and God," the picture suggests the artist's own mental anguish.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!
N Posted by Rain at 5/30/2006 12:08:00 AM
Lyndon posted at 4:33 AM
posted at 4:18 PM
posted at 11:16 PM
Name... Rain
From... West Coast, United States
I am a strong, sexy, intelligent, candid and loving woman who would do anything for her family. I am a mother of two.I have a sarcastic sense of humor,love to read and I am trying to stay positive in a difficult world.This is the place that I will use to perserve my sanity on the path that is called my life.
"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.It can turn a mealinto a feast, a house into a home,a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.~Melody Beattie
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