
Ghost Dance (The Vision of Life)
1895 · Oil on canvas
53.7 × 100 cm (21 1/8 × 39 3/8 in.)
Art Institute of Chicago

Ralph Albert Blakelock worked in oil on canvas, producing richly darkened landscape paintings associated with the American Tonalist movement. His compositions favor nocturnal or twilight scenes, dense with shadowed foliage and luminous moonlit skies rendered in deep, resonant tones. Working in New York in the latter half of the nineteenth century, he developed a personal approach to romantic landscape that set him apart from the more documentary traditions of the Hudson River School. His canvases are characterized by a brooding atmospheric quality achieved through layered glazes and muted, earthy palettes.
Source: Anton Kern · Trust score: 60% · Updated 2mo ago