The landscape lies wide and boundless in the light of a sun that has just set. The field is already dark, the sky is still illuminated yellow-orange, interspersed with blueish-purple bands of clouds. In the middle of the image the long arches of hills and clouds converge towards each other to continue along the sides into infinity. Friedrich structures the space by means of colour and light. It is animated only in the narrow central strip by a distant row of trees and towers, faded to purple, and the three figures, with the boy seeming to cheer the light.