A restless, adventurous and solitary person, Theodore Lambert is considered one of Alaska's most dedicated painters and is especially valued for the integrity of his realism and understanding of the wild, frontier aspects of the region. He was born in Zion, Illinois to a loving, supportive mother and overbearing father, and from childhood was rebellious. At age fourteen, he left home with a friend and ended up in Denver, Colorado. He returned home, worked briefly as a sign painter and engraver, and then by age seventeen, left permanently.

Penniless, he arrived in Alaska in 1925 or 1926 and took jobs as a miner, dog-sled postman, trapper, logger and book designer. Then he took a job with the Fairbanks Exploration Company as a roving a...