In his autobiography Poetry and Truth, Goethe wrote of Trautmann that he had “adopted Rembrandt as his model and had attained great perfection in inclosed lights and reflections, as well as in effective conflagrations”. In the nocturnal winter landscape, the painter dramatically juxtaposes the oppositions of night and blazing flame, snow, ice, and fire in keeping with the taste of the Frankfurt collections of the mid-18th century.