Painting the Town -- Museum of the City of New York

By the end of the Civil War, Fifth Avenue north of Washington Square to 59th Street boasted more than 340 private residences, among which stood many of the city's largest and most extravagant homes. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the avenue had become synonymous with wealth, high fashion, and architectural elegance. While the gentry of nineteenth-century New York built urban villas on mid-Fifth Avenue, wide open stretches of the boulevard north of 60th Street had been settled by African Americans and German and Irish immigrants. These residents operated truck farms and kept goats, chickens, and pigs but were powerless to hold onto their tracts in the face of such politically charged real estate developments as Central Park or, subsequently, the enormous price rises of the residential areas created at its borders. As late as 1905, when millionaire Andrew Carnegie erected his mansion at Fifth Avenue and 91st Street, his nearest neighbors were living in dwellings like the principal structure depicted in this view, which has been described as clearly related to an Irish architectural prototype, particularly because of its roof, which is apparently being thatched.¹ Although shanty has come to suggest a rough, makeshift dwelling for those unable to command anything more substantial, the word originally described this type of more solid structure.²

Blakelock's canvas, with his typically thick paint, depicts a cluster of these "shanty" structures near 89th Street. It is one of a series of paintings and drawings recording similar settings in upper Manhattan that Blakelock executed between 1860 and 1880. Blakelock, unlike most of his artist contemporaries, was attracted by the picturesque aspects of these simple domestic buildings with their weather-beaten textures and solidly designed features.

Records suggest that Blakelock was almost entirely self-taught. Although not elected to the National Academy of Design until 1913, he exhibited there frequently from 1868 until 1899, when, after several bouts of recurring mental illness, he suffered a severe and disabling breakdown, which curtailed his productivity.

Blakelock's work as an urban-scene painter records areas of the city on the verge of enormous physical changes. His moonlit landscapes are considered central to his career and perhaps best represent his moody artistic vision.³

Notes:

1 Alan Feldman, "Ruralization of the City-Scape," in The Gaelic Gotham Report: Assessing a Controversial Exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York (New York: New York Irish History Roundtable, 1997), p. 28.

2 The change in the connotation of shanty may stem from the political desire to imply that the dwellers were indigent and that being removed from the land (which was needed for private and civil projects) was in their best interest as well as in the interest of the developers.

3 Norman A. Geske, Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1847 -1919 (Omaha: Nebraska Art Association, 1974), p. 18. This catalogue presents an excellent overview of Blakelock's life and career.


Fifth Avenue at 89th Street in 1868 1868 Ralph A. Blakelock (1847 -1919) Oil on canvas, 15 3/4 X 23 3/4 Signed lower right: R. A. Blakelock Gift of Archer M. Huntington, 32.333
By the end of the Civil War, Fifth Avenue north of Washington Square to 59th Street boasted more than 340 private residences, among which stood many of the city's largest and most extravagant homes. By the dawn of the twentieth century, the avenue had become synonymous with wealth, high fashion, and architectural elegance. While the gentry of nineteenth-century New York built urban villas on mid-Fifth Avenue, wide open stretches of the boulevard north of 60th Street had been settled by African Americans and German and Irish immigrants. These residents operated truck farms and kept goats, chickens, and pigs but were powerless to hold onto their tracts in the face of such politically charged real estate developments as Central Park or, subsequently, the enormous price rises of the residential areas created at its borders. As late as 1905, when millionaire Andrew Carnegie erected his mansion at Fifth Avenue and 91st Street, his nearest neighbors were living in dwellings like the principal structure depicted in this view, which has been described as clearly related to an Irish architectural prototype, particularly because of its roof, which is apparently being thatched.¹ Although shanty has come to suggest a rough, makeshift dwelling for those unable to command anything more substantial, the word originally described this type of more solid structure.² Blakelock's canvas, with his typically thick paint, depicts a cluster of these "shanty" structures near 89th Street. It is one of a series of paintings and drawings recording similar settings in upper Manhattan that Blakelock executed between 1860 and 1880. Blakelock, unlike most of his artist contemporaries, was attracted by the picturesque aspects of these simple domestic buildings with their weather-beaten textures and solidly designed features. Records suggest that Blakelock was almost entirely self-taught. Although not elected to the National Academy of Design until 1913, he exhibited there frequently from 1868 until 1899, when, after several bouts of recurring mental illness, he suffered a severe and disabling breakdown, which curtailed his productivity. Blakelock's work as an urban-scene painter records areas of the city on the verge of enormous physical changes. His moonlit landscapes are considered central to his career and perhaps best represent his moody artistic vision.³ Notes: 1 Alan Feldman, "Ruralization of the City-Scape," in The Gaelic Gotham Report: Assessing a Controversial Exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York (New York: New York Irish History Roundtable, 1997), p. 28. 2 The change in the connotation of shanty may stem from the political desire to imply that the dwellers were indigent and that being removed from the land (which was needed for private and civil projects) was in their best interest as well as in the interest of the developers. 3 Norman A. Geske, Ralph Albert Blakelock, 1847 -1919 (Omaha: Nebraska Art Association, 1974), p. 18. This catalogue presents an excellent overview of Blakelock's life and career.