Bruce Crane captured harmonies of color and light to evoke the poetic qualities of a wintry landscape. Crane Belonged to the Tonalist movement, a style in American painting after 1900 that presented subject matter through tonal values. Rather than depict meticulous details, painters portrayed barren environments in winter and early spring, when fading light dissolved natural forms. Tonalist landscapes were studio productions that relied on the artist's memory of an environment. A contemporary critic described these atmospheric landscapes as "a science for the soul...that may mystify us and lift us above the prose of every-day existence." The scenes appealed to early 20th-century audiences by offering a reprieve from rising industrialization in America.

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