Charles Francis De Klyn was born in Westchester County, New York, in 1865. A landscape, marine, portrait and figure painter, De Klyn studied in New York and Paris from 1886 to 1891, then taught at the Cleveland Art Club and the Cleveland School of Art. In 1893, he was one of the founders of the Cleveland Brush and Palette Club, and he exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1894 and 1895.  He was also a member of the Society of Western Artists.