Ralph Blakelock was a leading American landscape painter. Much of his life was lived in obscurity and destitution. He developed late onset paranoid schizophrenia, resulting in prolonged hospitalization. During his time in hospital, demand for Blakelock’s works grew, but he was unable to enjoy any of this success. Instead, the artist fell prey to unscrupulous and unlikely exploitation by a self-appointed guardian, aided and abetted by Blakelock’s psychiatrists, which broke his spirit and may well have hastened his demise.
PostF. Creativity and psychopathology. A study of 291 world-famous men. British Journal of Psychiatry1994; 165: 22–34.
2.
DavidsonAA. Art and insanity: one case. Smithsonian Studies in American Art1989; 3: 54–71.
3.
SlaterERothM. Mayer-Gross Slater and Roth clinical psychiatry, 3rd ed. London: Baillière: Tindall, and Cassell, 1970.
4.
Smith R. Art view; islands of peace in a life awash in sadness. New York Times 1996, March 17.
5.
GamwellNTomesN. Madness in America: cultural and medical perceptions of mental illness before 1914, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.
6.
VincentG. The unknown night: the genius and madness of R.A.Blakelock, an American painter, New York: Grove Press, 2003.
7.
Smith R. Art: the landscapes of Ralph A. Blakelock. New York Times 1987, September 11.
8.
HrdlickaA. Art and literature in the mentally abnormal. American Journal of Insanity1899; 40: 385–404.
9.
KyagaSLichtensteinPBomanM. Creativity and mental disorder: family study of 300,000 people with severe mental disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry2011; 199: 373–379.
10.
HickmanC. Cheerfulness and tranquility: gardens in the Victorian asylum. Lancet Psychiatry2014; 1: 506–507.
