Born in Maine in 1852, Ben Foster specialized in painting poetic scenes of the New England countryside. For financial reasons he did not pursue an art career until thirty years of age, when he attended the attended the Art Students League in New York City. Following the common course of study for American artists of the time, Foster went to Paris from 1886 to 1887 but was inconsolably homesick for the woods, hills and fields of New England. Most of his work done after returning to America centered around his home in Cornwall Hollow, Connecticut.
Foster has been linked with the tonalists, a group of painters known for their limited tonal and value ranges and subdued color. This painting is typical of Foster’s oeuvre, with subdued palette, firm contours and overcast sky, all of which separate him from his contemporaries in American Impressionism. His use of low-key colors and minimal tonal range throughout the composition blend sky, atmosphere, and ground into a uniformly mood filled vista. The stark form of a centrally placed dead tree may be the only visual disruption on the otherwise tranquil lushness of the surrounding landscape. Foster reportedly did not paint directly from nature and must have consciously composed such a contrast of forms.
Born in Maine in 1852, Ben Foster specialized in painting poetic scenes of the New England countryside. For financial reasons he did not pursue an art career until thirty years of age, when he attended the attended the Art Students League in New York City. Following the common course of study for American artists of the time, Foster went to Paris from 1886 to 1887 but was inconsolably homesick for the woods, hills and fields of New England. Most of his work done after returning to America centered around his home in Cornwall Hollow, Connecticut.