Roswell Morse Shurtleff returned from the Civil War to a quiet life in the Adirondack Mountains, where most of his signature works were painted, sometimes in the company of his friends and painting companions Winslow Homer and J. Alden Weir.

His best work was typical of the second generation of Hudson River painters: a gifted use of light and the celebration of nature. But as he matured, Shurtleff began to soften his style, influenced by more modern techniques of late 19th Century painting. This work shows the softer, looser brushwork of his late period, with delicate light sifting through the trees on what seems a perfect summer day.

Roswell Shurtleff's work has been part of a number of distinguished public collections, including the National Gallery and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.