Marian Blakelock

An expressive landscape painter, Marian Blakelock was deeply influenced by the work of her father, Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847–1919). The second of nine children and thought to be her father’s favorite, Marian’s paintings of locations near her family’s home in the Catskills were at times mistakenly attributed to Ralph; dealers of the early twentieth century found the similarities in style unfavorable and as such Marian had a difficult time finding commercial success. Sadly, in another parallel to her father, she struggled with mental illness and in 1915 was institutionalized. In 1916 her paintings were exhibited alongside her father’s in an impressive exhibition at Young’s Art Galleries in Chicago. In the exhibition catalogue gallerist J. W. Young wrote that “the mantle of genius once borne by the father seems also to have fallen upon the daughter.”[1]

[1] J. W. Young, Catalog of the Works of R. A. Blakelock, N. A. and of His Daughter Marian Blakelock (Chicago: Young’s Art Galleries, 1916), 51.