As an early interpreter of the American landscape, Alvan Fisher formulated pastoral scenes that rose to the level of visual poetry. Their celebration of the land had an immediate appeal to patrons in his day. Approaching Storm, White Mountains represents the best of his style, wherein delicate light, verdant clearings, and rounded forms exude a sense of peace and plenty. Fisher's role in setting the stage for the artists of the Hudson River School is hinted at through the gray mass of clouds that threaten at upper right - a foretaste of the romantic sublime.