Fremont Ellis's October Aspen , 1924

A Montana native, Fremont Ellis settled in Santa Fe, NM, in 1919, and in 1921, was a founding member of Los Cinco Pintores, a group of modernist artists also including Josef Bakos, Walter Mruk, Will Shuster, and Willard Nash. Ellis distinguished himself from his peers by a less avant-garde approach, relying instead on techniques borrowed from both realism and impressionism, as well as the photographic medium.

October Aspen evinces visual accuracy through a masterful portrayal of natural light, bathing peaks and recesses in the mountainous landscape in the background, while also spotlighting the aspen in the foreground with their subtly varied autumn shades, as if capturing a fleeting moment in time. The composition further subjugates the gaze to the heights surrounding Santa Fe through an opening amidst the trees, thereby guiding and immersing the viewer in the grandeur of the landscape.