Jasper Francis Cropsey greatly admired the works of Thomas Cole, who was the first American painter to establish the country’s wilderness as an important subject for painting. In 1850, Cropsey stayed with Cole’s widow in the village of Catskill, where he visited the late artist’s studio and made several sketches of the landscape. (Myers, The Catskills, 1987) In this painting the windswept trees and dark tones of brown and orange evoke the aftermath of a passing storm.