A peak of Ben Venue, Springtime

Fraser's more informal works such as The Entrance to Cadzow Forest (Edinburgh; National Gallery of Scotland) and the present painting have been favourably compared to contemporary paintings by the French Barbizon painters, although grounded in a native tradition. Like his elder contemporary Horatio McCulloch, he went on painting expeditions with Fettes Douglas and Sam Bough in Cadzow Forest and on the banks of Loch Lomond. Fraser believed in plein-air painting which is reflected in the freshness of his colours and accuracy of observation. Indeed, Caw noted 'He did not interpret Nature's beauty, making it something new and wonderfull, as the poet-painters do, but his pictures are steeped in the familiar and abiding charm of the beautiful facts of Nature.' (1908; p. 190). His work can be seen as a fusion of the Dutch landscape painters, especially Ruysdael, Hobbema and Cuyp, and the English landscape masters - Constable, Turner, Cox and Müller. Along with his contemporary landscape painters - Wintour, Bough and Docharty - his landscape was in some respects transitional in sentiment and style, and belongs rather to the past than to the developments of the next generation that were led by Scott Lauder.

The titles of his pictures focus on aspects of the weather and the seasons, with their accompanying work in fields and woods. Although his figures, such as the faggot gatherers in the present work, are never the subject of the painting, they help to express the sentiment of the scene and the season and are used as key factors in the composition, giving necessary contrast or carrying certain tones through the picture.