Sunrise

Artist Ralph Albert Blakelock American, 1847–1919

Date1868

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensionsoverall: 20 × 32 in. (50.8 × 81.3 cm)
frame: 28 × 40 × 3 3/4 in. (71.1 × 101.6 × 9.5 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.1

On View

Not on view

Provenance**Created United States, 1868; collection of the artist. [Babcock Galleries, New York, 1916]; Col. Harvey F. Additon, Boston; Hudson D. Walker (1907–1976), New York, 1931; [Babcock Galleries, New York, 1940]; sold to NCMA, 1952.Published ReferencesJ.W. Young, Catalog of the Works of R.A. Blakelock, N.A. and his daughter Marian Blakelock exhibited at Young's Art Galleries (Chicago: Young's Art Galleries, 1916), illus. (b-w, as lent by Babcock Galleries), but not listed in checklist.

Lloyd Goodrich, The Hudson River School and the Early American Landscape Tradition (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1945), cat. no. 25.

Ralph Albert Blakelock Centenary Exhibition (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1947), discussed 11, cat. no. 25, illus. (b-w).

Gallery 1 (Sept. 1950), illus. (b-w) 13.

W. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 1, illus. (b-w).

Wayne Craven, American Painting 1857-1869 (exhibition catalogue) (Wilmington: Wilmington Society of Fine Arts, Delaware Art Center, 1962), cat. no. 7, discussed 17-18, illus. (b-w).

American Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings, Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 1, illus. (b-w).

The Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock (exhibition catalogue) (Santa Barbara: The Art Galleries, University of California Santa Barbara, 1969), cat. no. 28, illus. (b-w).

Nina Kasanof, "American Landscapes of the 19th Century in the North Carolina Museum of Art," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 8 (June 1969), 2-15, discussed 13, illus. (b-w) fig. 14.

Wilderness (exhibition catalogue) (Washington, DC: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1971), cat. no. 25.

Patricia Krebs, "Training Avoided, Blakelock Succeeds with Naive Sun," Greensboro (NC) Daily News (November 5, 1974).

Norman A. Geske, "The Development of the Painter's Style," in Ralph Albert Blakelock (exhibition catalogue) (Lincoln, NE: Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, 1975), 7-32, discussed 7, 10; cat. no. 13, illus. (color).

American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (brochure) (Charlotte: Mint Museum of Art, 1975), no. 1.

"Ralph Albert Blakelock in the West," American Art Review 3 (January/February 1976), 123-135, discussed 125, illus. (b-w) 123.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 244.

Abraham A. Davidson, "Art and Insanity, One Case: Blakelock at Middletown," Smithsonian Studies in American Art (Summer 1989), 55-71, discussed 56, illus. (b-w) fig. 1.

Melissa Clement, "Nature and her many faces on display in landscape show," (exhibition review), Fayetteville, NC: Fayetteville Observer-Times (December 4, 1998), mentioned 19.

Norman A. Geske, Beyond Madness: The Art of Ralph Blakelock, 1847-1919 (Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2007), discussed 28, illus. (color) pl. 1.

Exhibition HistoryChicago, IL, Young's Art Galleries, April 27-May 13, 1916, illus. in catalogue (b-w, as lent by Babcock Galleries), but not listed in checklist.

New York, NY, Babcock Galleries, "Ralph A. Blakelock," January 10-31, 1942, no. 9.

Chicago, IL, Art Institute of Chicago, "The Hudson River School and the Early American Landscape Tradition," February 15-March 25, 1945; New York, NY, Whitney Museum of American Art, April 17-May 18, 1945, no. 18 (lent by Babcock Gallery).

New York, NY, Whitney Museum of American Art, "Ralph Albert Blakelock Centenary Exhibition," April 22-May 29, 1947, no. 25, illus. (b-w) (lent by Babcock Galleries).

Wilmington, DE, Delaware Art Center, "American Painting, 1857-1869," January 12-February 18, 1962, no. 7, illus. (b-w).

Santa Barbara, CA, University of California Santa Barbara, Art Galleries, "The Enigma of Ralph A. Blakelock," January 7-February 2, 1969; San Francisco, CA, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, February 15-March 16, 1969; Phoeniz, AZ, Phoenix Art Museum, March 24-April 27, 1969; Huntington, NY, The Heckscher Museum, May 17-June 23, 1969, no. 28, illus. (b-w).

Washington, DC, Corcoran Gallery of Art, "Wilderness," October 9-November 14, 1971, no. 25.

Lincoln, NE, University of Nebraska, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, "Ralph Albert Blakelock," January 14-February 9, 1975; Trenton, NJ, New Jersey State Museum, May 4-June 7, 1975, no. 13, illus. (color).

Charlotte, NC, Mint Museum of Art, "American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," September 7-October 19, 1975, no. 1.

Fayetteville, NC, Fayetteville Museum of Art, "Inaugural Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," May 1-30, 1978.

Wilmington, NC, St. John's Museum of Art, "Inventing the American Landscape: A Dialogue with the Visual World," April 25-June 28, 1998; Hickory, NC, The Hickory Museum of Art, September 12-November 8, 1998; Fayetteville, NC, Fayetteville Museum of Art, November 22, 1998-January 17, 1999; Greenville, NC, Greenville Museum of Art, March 10-April 30, 1999, brochure. (Outreach exhibition)

Chapel Hill, NC, Ackland Art Museum, "At Work in the Wilderness: Picturing the American Landscape, 1820-1920," January 14-March 20, 2011.
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