Winter

In 1891, Tryon offered to paint a picture or two for the house Charles Lang Freer was building in Detroit, "a dream of Beauty," as it was described, "inside and out." Freer readily accepted Tryon's offer, and before long the commission had grown to include five landscapes for the main hall: Autumn (F1893.16), Summer (F1893.15), Winter, Springtime (F1893.14) and Dawn (F1906.86). In these "decorations," as Tryon called these paintings, the artist attempted to maintain the classic "purity" of the interior design by keeping a consistent horizon in every scene. Although some of the paintings were occassionaly exhibited separately, Freer and Tryon always regarded them as an "ensemble."

Tryon rarely painted winter landscapes. He detested the cold weather that drove him indoors, and said he had an aversion to snow scenes. Winter however, was a necessary part of the cycle of seasonal paintings that Tryon produced for Freer's home in Detriot. As the artist's friend Thomas Dewing observed, the austerity of the landscape conveys Tryon's melancholy response to the season. "A thousand miles from home," Dewing said upon seeing the painting, "and friends all dead!"