Known for her painterly, naturalistic landscapes and still-life images, Sarah Jane Blakeslee received her art training in Realism* and Impressionism* and was profoundly influenced by the work of Paul Cezanne.

Blakeslee was born in Evanston, Illinois in 1912. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago*, Illinois in 1926, followed by the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C. Additional instruction was obtained from Catherine Critcher, an artist recognized for her Native American portrait paintings. In 1931 she began studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts* in Philadelphia under the artist Francis Speight. As an instructor and landscape painter, Speight was influential on the artwork ...