Two small mallards float side by side on a still marsh pond, their soft reflections rippling beneath them. Tall dry reeds frame the lower corners, a band of golden reeds runs along the far water, and a slender golden birch and rusty trees stand on the shore.

Rolling blue-gray hills fade into haze under a thin lilac sky with a pinkish-cream glow on the clouds. Painted in oil on linen in the manner of a tonal impressionist landscape, it uses soft bristle and palette-knife strokes in the sky, feathery dry-brush reeds and a visible canvas weave for a quiet late-autumn calm.