Born in Middletown, Connecticut, William Ranney devoted his career to depicting the West. As a young man, he apprenticed to a tinsmith in Fayetteville, North Carolina, having abandoned his study of art in New York City after the death of his sea-captain father. To find adventure, he joined in 1836 the Texas army in its fight for independence against Mexico, and this period, very brief, was his only experience on the frontier. It is likely that he met trappers on this venture, as several of his most popular paintings including The Trappers Last Shot, were based on a rowdy rendezvous with trapper Joseph Meek in Yellowstone Park.

Following this period of western adventure, he returned to Brooklyn where he lived, working ...