During and after his life, John Leslie Breck was credited with bringing French Impressionism to Boston and the United States at large. In a letter to the artist's family upon learning of Breck's sudden and premature death in 1899, John Henry Twachtman eulogized “our country loses a great genius, though it will probably never know it. . . . Jack Breck started the new school of painting in America."

Breck grew up in Newtown, Massachusetts. He began his artistic training at the Royal Academy in Munich, Germany. In 1886, he enrolled at the Académie Julian in Paris. And in the summer of 1887, he traveled to Giverny with a group of American artists that included Willard LeRoy Metcalf, Theodore Robinson, and Theodore Wendel. Reportedly, the group chose Giverny for its beauty not the presence of Claude Monet. In fact, according to Breck’s brother, Edward, ". . . none of the Americans made the master's [Monet's] acquaintance" that summer.1 When Breck finally did meet Monet, however, the two became fast friends. Monet did not accept students, but he invited Breck to "come down . . . to Giverny [sic] and spend a few months. I won't give you lessons, but we'll wander about the fields and woods and paint together."2 This artistic relationship and friendship led to Breck's romantic involvement with Monet's stepdaughter, Blanche Hoschédé. In fact, the younger artist became so enamored of Giverny and its residents that he remained there during the winters of 1888 and 1889, after most other American artists had returned to Paris.

Breck’s connection to Giverny and to Monet himself greatly influenced his artistic style. The dark, academic paintings that demonstrated the impact of his time in Munich were replaced by exuberant, light-filled landscapes. Breck’s bright impressionistic paintings were first exhibited at the St. Botolph Club in Boston in 1890. This show and another one held in 1895 not only presented Breck’s work to the American public, but they also introduced the style and philosophy of French Impressionism to American artists and collectors alike.

During the 1880s one of Breck's closest friends was Louis Ritter, a Cincinnati artist who had moved to Boston after a long sojourn in Europe. Breck and Ritter worked together not only on Boston's North Shore but also at an eighteenth- century farmhouse in West Rutland, a small town directly in the center of Massachusetts and easily accessible from Boston on the Central Massachusetts Railroad. Known as the Browning farm after its first owner, the property consisted of several hundred acres, which William Henry Healy and Harriet Augusta Healy, Breck's uncle and aunt, purchased in 1879. In 1883 they constructed a studio building on their property for their nephew shortly after his return from Europe. During an 1885 visit to Rutland, Ritter created a large fresco painting in the house, probably with Breck's assistance, of the Basin of Venice, featuring two fishing boats in the foreground and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore in the background. This reminiscence of Ritter's experiences in Venice with the Duveneck Boys doubtlessly helped to plant the seeds for Breck's Venice visit in 1897. Most of Breck's snow scenes probably depict that property.

This particular painting, Stand of Birch Trees in Winter, was completed in 1895, likely at the Browning farm. Here, Breck expertly captures the pale quality of winter light, demonstrating the influence of painting en plein air in France. The New England Farm setting makes for a compelling scene, the stark, bareness of the Massachusetts winter at odds with Breck's delicate handling of the paint. The contrast between the light-colored hues of the birch trees and the snow against the dramatic, wintery blue sky emphasizes both the organic forms of the trees and the all-encompassing blanket of the snow. In Stand of Birch Trees, Breck demonstrated the full extent of his impressionistic skill set, perfectly capturing the texture and mood of a winter day.