John Robinson Tait, a specialist in landscape painting, studied at German art academies in both Duesseldorf and Munich before moving to Baltimore in 1871. He was a member of Baltimore’s Charcoal Club, an association started by Baltimore artists in 1883 and dedicated to exploring then-contemporary art. Far more loosely painted than his tightly rendered salon painting of the Alps, this canvas probably dates to near the end of Tait’s career. An intimate glimpse of nature rather than a grand panoramic view, the Maryland countryside is rendered in a light palette, using a sharply tilted perspective. Tait’s painting resembles the academic impressionism practiced by other Charcoal Club members such as Samuel Edwin Whiteman.