Although Rockwell Kent studied with leading American impressionist William Merritt Chase (1849–1916) and leading American realist Robert Henri (1865–1929), the artist’s modern artistic departure simplified the objects in his landscapes into geometric shapes. Kent’s modernist aesthetic composed these abstracted forms into overlapping layers of flattened vignettes. These vignettes expressed his transcendental spiritual belief that glorified humanity’s place within the vastness of nature.