Since Blakelock rarely dated any of his mature works, it is impossible to precisely date his paintings. Landscape with Trees can, at least, be dated to the period of about 1883 to 1898, a time when the artist was working in his best known style, employing silhouettes and lacy foliage effects. Particularly visible in the sky is the deliberately textured heavy paint surface that Blakelock liked to paint on with his generally thin paint and glazes. The compositional grouping of trees around a central vista is a familiar one in his work. The landscape is peppered with flickering highlights, as the light from the overcast sky seems to partially dissolve the foliage’s tracery. The mood is that of an airless stillness and solitude, a visionary landscape of the spirit rather than of a particular place and time. More than many, which have greatly darkened over time, this evocative painting reveals Blakelock’s sensitivity to delicate color, which is employed with an almost musical sense of abstract design.
