John Crome was the founder of the Norwich School of Painters, a group of nineteenth-century artists spanning three generations, who mainly concentrated on landscape. His early pictures were strongly influenced by Dutch seventeenth-century painters. However his mature work, including this painting, shows an increasing concern for naturalism and an interest in atmospheric effects. Crome and Constable were among the earliest artists to paint portraits of trees, representing identifiable species rather than generalised tree forms. Constable’s favourite tree was said to be the ash.