Any Man's Land

Storm clouds tumble across the top of this canvas, thick and gray, with just a couple of blue gaps hinting that better weather might follow. Below them a broad field of golden grass rolls out, dotted with pale rocks and anchored by a single tree on the left. Search the shadows and you will find a tiny figure and a cow moving quietly through the emptiness. The title, "Any Man's Land," fits perfectly. This is open country that belongs to no one and feels recognizable to almost anyone who has walked through a wide field under a shifting sky.

American painter Alexander Helwig Wyant made this work in the late 1800s, and it belongs to the Tonalist movement. Rather than chasing sharp detail, Tonalist artists chased feeling, favoring soft light, hushed color, and a slightly dreamy air. The loose, smudged brushwork and muted browns and golds here show that thinking clearly. Wyant also had a very personal reason for painting this way. A stroke left his right hand partly paralyzed, so he retrained himself to work with his left, which likely shaped the gentle, atmospheric touch of his later paintings. The end result is a calm and honest scene about nothing more grand than clouds drifting over ordinary ground.