Active Dates: 1890-19141“Theron J. Blakeslee,” American Art News, March 14, 1914, XII edition. https://books.google.com/books?id=-cFIAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA14&lpg=RA3-PA14&dq=theronblakeslee&source=bl&ots=YwZolVQpi2&sig=ACfU3U0fNaYTCYHSz9eow-arwdg5crD31w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiK6tio2u_oAhVpl3IEHVUKCVc4ChDoATAGegQIChAt#v=onepage&q=theron blakeslee&f=false.
Gallerist: Theron Blakeslee
Location:
1891: 218 5th Ave 26th Street2Julian Alden Weir, Catalogue of recent paintings by J. Alden Weir: exhibited at the Blakeslee Galleries, January twenty-first to February seventh (New York: Blakeslee Galleries,1891), https://archive.org/details/catalogueofrecen00weir/page/n9/mode/2up.
1898: 353 5th ave 34th street3Theron J. Blakeslee, 1914, Exhibition of Early English, Dutch, And Flemish Paintings At the Blakeslee Galleries (New York: Blakeslee Galleries, 1898), https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.fl2sel&view=1up&seq=4.
Later move to knickerbocker trust and co on the opposite corner (5th ave and 34th street)4“Theron J. Blakeslee.”
5th ave and 53rd (renovating prior to death)5“Theron J. Blakeslee.”
Specialty: Blakeslee specialized originally in American works then quickly moved to Old Masters Paintings.6“Theron J. Blakeslee.”
Gallery History
Well known in its own time, the Blakeslee galleries became eclipsed by the fame of its owner, Theron Blakeslee, in 1914 when he killed himself in his shop.7“Art Dealer Ends his Suffering: Theron Blakeslee, Owner of Great Masters, Kills Himself,” Sacramento Union, Volume 175, Number 8, ( March 8, 1914) https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SU19140308.2.16&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–1. Though his death was attributed to a great depression and stress he experienced due to business affairs, Blakeslee’s ventures were noteworthy feats. Born in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1849, the gallerist started his career with Noyes & Blakeslee in Boston. He relocated to New York city in 1890 to establish his own gallery and tap into a larger market, originally selling modern American Dutch paintings along with popular Barbizon landscapes until 1892. He then pivoted his gallery towards the sale of Old master paintings. He produced sumptuous catalogues to go along with these sales, highly descriptive and full of reproduced images.8 For example, see Exhibition of Early English, Dutch, And Flemish Paintings At the Blakeslee Galleries. Though his clientele for this kind of work was initially quite small, it quickly expanded across the continental United States. His charisma and known “infallible” eye made him one of the few trustworthy American sources for Old Master paintings. His initial success in the United States inspired other galleries to open across the country.9All information retrieved from “Theron J. Blakeslee.” Nonetheless, by the dawn of the Twentieth Century he participated in auctions of his works with others such as Eugène Fischoff in 1900 and Dowdeswell in 1904, the latter at which works sold for notably low prices, implying that his works were not selling particularly well.10Eugène Fischhof, Theron J. Blakeslee, and American Art Association, Illustrated Catalogue of Master Works of the Early English, Dutch, French And Flemish Schools: Belonging to Eugene Fischhof, Paris, And T. J. Blakeslee, New York, to Be Sold At Absolute Public Sale At Chickering Hall … March 9th And 10th … (New York, 1900), https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008700728. and “Record prices, bargain sales and the complications of dealing with Duveen: the early 20th century history of art dealers Dowdeswell’s in the pages of The Burlington Magazine,”The Burlington Magazine Index Blog, April 29, 2016, https://burlingtonindex.wordpress.com/2016/04/29/record-prices-bargain-sales-and-the-complications-of-dealing-with-duveen-the-early-20th-century-history-of-art-dealers-dowdeswells-in-the-pages-of-the-burlington-magazine/. In 1915, at the behest of Blakeslee’s widow, the American Art Association auctioned off his collection and remaining Gallery at the famous Plaza Hotel on 5th and 59th in NYC. The catalogue was extensive, luxurious, and full of certifications and descriptions of the works by European academics.11Theron J., Blakeslee, -1914. Illustrated Catalogue of the Extensive Collection of Highly Valuable Paintings by the Great Masters of the Early English, French, Flemish, Dutch, Italian And Spanish Schools, From the Widely Known Blakeslee Galleries, (New York: American Art Association, 1915), https://archive.org/details/liu-31289009872021/mode/2up. No photographs of Blakeslee were ever published at his request.12“Theron J. Blakeslee.”
Illustrations13Images from: Exhibition of Early English, Dutch, And Flemish Paintings At the Blakeslee Galleries.
Date Written: April 17, 2020
Contributors: CC
Primary Sources
“Art Dealer Ends his Suffering: Theron Blakeslee, Owner of Great Masters, Kills Himself.” Sacramento Union, Volume 175, Number 8, 8 March 1914. https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SU19140308.2.16&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–1
Blakeslee, T. J. Catalogue of the Blakeslee Collection of Valuable Paintings, Principally Portraits by the Early English, French And Dutch Schools ..: Public Sale … New York: The Amer. Art Assoc, 1905.https://archive.org/details/liu-31289009872021/mode/2up.
Blakeslee, Theron J., 1914. Exhibition of Early English, Dutch, And Flemish Paintings At the Blakeslee Galleries. New York, 1898. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.fl2sel&view=1up&seq=4
Blakeslee, Theron J., -1914. Illustrated Catalogue of the Extensive Collection of Highly Valuable Paintings by the Great Masters of the Early English, French, Flemish, Dutch, Italian And Spanish Schools, From the Widely Known Blakeslee Galleries … New York: American Art Association, 1915. https://archive.org/details/liu-31289009872021/mode/2up.
Fischhof, Eugène, Theron J. Blakeslee, and American Art Association. Illustrated Catalogue of Master Works of the Early English, Dutch, French And Flemish Schools: Belonging to Eugene Fischhof, Paris, And T. J. Blakeslee, New York, to Be Sold At Absolute Public Sale At Chickering Hall … March 9th And 10th … New York, 1900. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008700728.
“Theron J. Blakeslee.” American Art News. March 14, 1914, XII edition. https://books.google.com/books?id=-cFIAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA14&lpg=RA3-PA14&dq=theronblakeslee&source=bl&ots=YwZolVQpi2&sig=ACfU3U0fNaYTCYHSz9eow-arwdg5crD31w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiK6tio2u_oAhVpl3IEHVUKCVc4ChDoATAGegQIChAt#v=onepage&q=theron blakeslee&f=false.
Weir, Julian Alden. 1891. Catalogue of recent paintings by J. Alden Weir: exhibited at the Blakeslee Galleries, January twenty-first to February seventh, inclusive. New York: Blakeslee Galleries. https://archive.org/details/catalogueofrecen00weir/page/n9/mode/2up.
Secondary Sources
“Record prices, bargain sales and the complications of dealing with Duveen: the early 20th century history of art dealers Dowdeswell’s in the pages of The Burlington Magazine.”The Burlington Magazine Index Blog. April 29, 2016. https://burlingtonindex.wordpress.com/2016/04/29/record-prices-bargain-sales-and-the-complications-of-dealing-with-duveen-the-early-20th-century-history-of-art-dealers-dowdeswells-in-the-pages-of-the-burlington-magazine/.