“All nature up to the horizon uttered the sombre chord that would be in unison with the refrain of the lost, and the caverns of the forest vibrated in their mystic depth,” Watson reminisced in an undated description of experiencing a landscape at night. “[Everything] seemed connected together by invisible ties and the limits of earth seemed to mount in the air and be linked with the spirits of other worlds.”

Moonlit Stream may be interpreted as supporting these ideas—a highly personal end-of-career statement. The tonalities in its sky had little in common with those used by other Canadian artists of the time, whether traditional or modern.