The Boulder and the Flume

Ralph Albert Blakelock

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This picture, probably painted in 1878, shows a renowned spot in the White Mountains of New Hampshire at Franconia Notch. Blakelock had visited the site on his honeymoon voyage. The romantic excitement of the deep cleft in the rocks and the threatening boulder so precariously lodged above the icy stream has been presented, paradoxically, with great directness and objectivity. The entire painted surface is made interesting with strong contrast of light and dark and by the alternation of smooth and roughened textures that is a characteristic technique of Blakelock's.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art