1892
Oil on canvas, 13 x 21”
Signed lower left

Painted the year he moved to Mystic, this scene shows that Davis, a Massachusetts native who had lived in France for a decade, where he painted the restrained, atmospheric country scenes that characterize French Barbizon art, was already responding to the strikingly different light and look of shoreline Connecticut.

His French works also silhouetted low-lying landscapes against the sky, but they were smoothly painted in sober tones and the sky had a soft glow. They gave no hint of the brilliant color and aggressive paint application that enliven this early Mystic painting.