The American painter Ralph Albert Blakelock (1847-1919) was one of the most original romantic artists of late-19th-century America.

Ralph Blakelock was born on Oct. 15, 1847, in New York City. After a year and a half of college he dropped out to take up painting. Entirely self-taught, by the age of 20 he was painting competent landscapes and exhibiting in the National Academy of Design. In his early 20s he journeyed to the Far West, wandering far from civilization and spending some time among the Indians; this experience resulted in a lifelong fascination with the forest and its Indian inhabitants.

Blakelock's early landscapes were relatively literal and tight, in the style of the Hudson River school of painters, though without their grandiosity. As he matured, he developed a more intimate, subjective style. His favorite theme was the deep forest with its wildness and solitude; the hours were sunset, twilight, or...