A loose flock of bats sweeps in a diagonal from lower left to upper right across a vast, turbulent sky. Dark storm clouds roll apart to let warm golden-cream light through, backlighting the bats with its glow. Below, a low horizon holds flat marshland, a still reflective channel of water and silhouetted bare trees.

Painted in the manner of a 19th-century Romantic landscape, the sky is softly blended and veiled in haze, while fine antique craquelure and a slightly darkened varnish tone give the surface the look of an old canvas. The mood is dramatic and melancholic, a gothic take on autumn dusk.