Rain on River exemplifies Edward Hopper's singular approach to the technique of watercolor, and the emotion and luminosity with which he imbued his vision of the American landscape. The unusual subject of a landscape without houses or figures makes this exquisite watercolor especially rare in Hopper's body of work. Hopper began working in watercolor in the summer of 1923 and built a successful artistic practice in this medium, working mostly en plein air through the 1940s, during summers in Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont, where Rain on River was painted. The Vermont mountains offered Hopper a means through which to experiment with various spatial structures.