Ranger was described during the first decade of the twentieth century as a “forceful and able” painter who “had a strength of composition, a sense of the picturesque, a delicate and glowing scheme of color that were distinctly his own. He loved and painted the New England coast and woodland in Spring, Summer and Autumn.” Ranger sought an American equivalent to the Barbizon colony of painters of the nineteenth century in France and found it in Old Lyme. He often sketched compositions outdoors adding finishing touches once back in his studio. Painted the end of the artist’s short career, this work possesses the spontaneity of a quick sketch and the careful observation of the natural world.
