Ralph Albert Blakelock 1847-1919

In a letter about this work, Norman Geske comments that "this painting is one of a number of such works depicting a heavily wooded landscape with an emphasis on rows of vertical tree trunks, one or more fallen trunks, a central stream and a shallow waterfall, a spatial recession to a lighted sky at the horizon and a notable painterly indulgence in the various textures of wood, water, natural undergrowth and, most particularly, a range of atmosphere from up front realism to a subtle vagueness in the distance.

In sum, this painting is an excellent example of Blakelock's instinctive response to the variety in nature.  There are passages that are astonishingly free of the meticuolous realism that is characteristic of American painting of the time."

This painting has been entered as No. 1977, Category II in the Blakelock Inventory, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska.