Jules Bastien-Lepage's abbreviated creative activity dated from approximately 1870 until his death in 1884. Throughout his short life Bastien-Lepage provided a valuable contribution to the art world and was an important catalyst in the evolution of the modernist movement. As he was only able to complete six of the twelve planned paintings for Months in the Country, there is no way to tell the depth of Bastien-Lepage’s influence, or the direction his work would have taken had he not succumbed to illness in 1884.