Ralph Blakelock

Charlotte Seifen <charlotte.seifen [at] woodruffcenter__org> writes

>I would be grateful for any information regarding the "Ralph
>Blakelock Research Project" undertaken in 1969 at the University of
>Nebraska Art Galleries in conjunction with a Blakelock exhibition
>organized by the University of California, Santa Barbara.  As part
>of this project a large body of Blakelock's paintings were examined
>by a Mr. F. duPont Cornelius (conservator for the Sheldon Memorial
>Art Gallery), a Mr. Ben Johnson (conservator for LACMA) and a Mr.
>Roth.

I am not sure if you can use this information but there was
technical work done on a series of Blakelocks using autoradiography
at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the early 1970's. This research
was a study of 19th century American oil painters, but the bulk
deals with Blakelock.  The authors do a good job of explaining the
technique and even find a few forgeries.  The study was published in
(I'm not certain of how to cite this):

    M.J. Cotter, P. Meyers, L. van Zelst, C.H. Oiln and E.V. Sayre
    "A Study of the Materials and Techniques Used by some of XIX
    Century American Oil Painters by Means of Neutron Activation
    Autoradiography"
    Applicazione dei metodi nucleari nel campo delle opere d'arte
    (Roma-Venezia 24-29 maggio 1973), Accademia Nazionale Dei Lincei

Some of the people you list are in the acknowledgments.

Joe Swider
Conservation Scientist
Freer Gallery of Art


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 14:51
                  Distributed: Tuesday, April 3, 2001
                       Message Id: cdl-14-51-014
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