Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919): Psychiatric hospitalization and the abduction of an American landscape artist.

Abstract

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.