Grey Day Landscape

The present work may have been painted in the rural French village of Giverny, the site of a lively artist colony inspired by Claude Monet, where Ritman first spent the summer in 1911. This visit proved to be a major turning point in his career, and he would return to Giverny almost every summer for the next twenty years. There, he painted in the company of other American Impressionists, notably Frederick Frieseke, John Leslie Breck, Theodore Robinson and Richard E. Miller.

Grey Day Landscape, composed of a beautiful mosaic of rich blues and purples, is characteristic of Ritman's lively Impressionistic style. The vitality of the natural world is amplified by the artist's careful use of color and energetic brushwork, inviting the viewer to enjoy the peaceful, meditative day that the artist creates.