Near the Close of a Stormy Day is a splendidly accomplished example of Watson’s ability to paint the mood-inducing and pictorially unifying atmospheric effects that root his landscapes in the lived experience of familiar locales. At the same time, the painting moves away from the comparatively histrionic effects of A Coming Storm in the Adirondacks, 1879, not least by transposing the setting from an awe-inspiring wilderness to a more human-scaled landscape that features, in the aftermath of a violent storm, the reassuring presence of farm animals.