This painting shows a scene from the northwest outskirts of Rockford, Illinois. George Robertson was born in Edinburg, Scotland, and he studied at the Royal Academy in London where he exhibited from 1827 to 1836. He moved to the United States in 1842 and lived in Cleveland, Ohio before going to Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1846. By 1857, he was listed in the Rockford, Illinois city directory as a portrait and landscape painter. Starting in 1860 he taught drawing and painting at the Rockford Seminary, which later became Rockford College. He remained at Rockford College as a professor until he retired in 1885. He continued to paint until giving up his studio in 1890.