The Artist's Garden

Ralph Albert Blakelock

National Gallery of Art

Neat, tended garden rows stretch away from us toward a band of trees in this horizontal landscape painting. Low plants grow across the middle of the scene, and higher plants are staked on poles to the right. A fence runs alongside the garden to the left, and a few structures are tucked among the trees’ bushy canopies. Two white chimneys are outlined against the watery blue sky on the far side of the tree line. The plants are painted with visible dabs of copper brown and ivory white, and the dark trees are highlighted with more white glints. The entire scene is backlit and shadowy, though, making details about the buildings, which might include a shed, gate, and house, hard to make out. Thin white clouds skim across the sky. Traces of a signature in red paint are visible in the lower right corner.