Eliot Clark referred to this landscape as "one of the most dramatic and powerful pictures painted by Wyant," expressive of "the unrelenting and irresistible force of nature." Wyant depicted a desolate land, devoid of any human presence, with only one tree sturdy enough to survive, and the painting was mistakenly referred to in 1912 as No Man’s Land. Storm clouds move quickly over the wild marshy land, solitary stream, and ragged rocks, which cast threatening, dark shadows. While Wyant was preoccupied with light, atmosphere, and weather, Any Man's Land is one of his stormiest landscapes. His earth-toned palette has become even more somber, and his colors--browns, yellow ochers, grays, dark greens, blacks, and white--serve as visual equivalents of nature's ominous mood. The loose brushwork in the artist's late paintings is usually attributed to the physical disability he suffered after his stroke. Any Man's Land, however, demonstrates that Wyant's late painterly handling was not a result of technical inability but was deliberately employed as an expressive element. The forceful strokes in the clouds and sky echo the movement of the threatening storm, and the vigorous scumbling of the rocks and distant terrain express the wildness of the land. Air and earth seem to merge as the wind whips through, and all becomes ethereal. So removed from strict representation had Wyant become that his art verged on abstraction. Wyant's brushwork and emphasis on mood rather than place would date this as a late work. The art historian Robert S. Olpin places it in the artist's last years, dating it about 1887-92. A painting with the same title was exhibited in the 1880 annual exhibition of the Society of American Artists, however, and the notices the exhibited landscape received in several newspaper reviews accord with the appearance of the museum's painting. Any Man's Land therefore was painted much earlier than previously considered and demonstrates that Wyant's turn toward a personal, abstract art began earlier than art historians previously thought.

The late nineteenth century witnessed a growing cosmopolitanism and sophistication in American culture. Great riches were amassed by railroad tycoons and land barons, and along with this came the desire for a luxurious standard of living. Collectors filled their homes with European as well as American works of art. American artists, generally trained abroad, often painted in styles that were indistinguishable from their European counterparts.
Most Americans who studied abroad did so in the European academies, which promoted uplifting subject matter and a representational style that emphasized well-modeled, clearly defined forms and realistic color. Academic painting served American artists well, for their clients demanded elaborate large-scale paintings to demonstrate their wealth and social positions. With an emphasis on material objects and textures, academic artists immortalized their patrons’ importance in full-length portraits.
Academic painting dominated taste in Europe throughout the century. But in the 1860s impressionism emerged in France as a reaction to this hegemony. By the 1880s this “new painting” was still considered progressive. Mary Cassatt was the only American invited to participate in the revolutionary Paris impressionist exhibitions. Despite her participation and the early interest of several other American painters, few Americans explored impressionism until the 1890s. Impressionist painters no longer had to choose subject matter of an elevated character but instead could depict everyday scenes and incidents. Nor did impressionists have to record the physical world with the objective detail of a photograph. Artists were now encouraged to leave their studios and paint outside under different weather conditions. American impressionists used the new aesthetic to capture the charm and beauty of the countryside and the city as well as the quiet delicacy of domestic interiors.

Alexander Wyant, along with George Inness and Albert Ryder, was responsible for transforming landscape painting in the United States. In the late 1870s, these painters began to express specific moods and emotional experiences rather than simply delineating physical locales. Any Man’s Land is one of Wyant’s most haunting moodscapes. The desolate, wide-open field is devoid of any human presence and depicts what Eliot Clark, the artist’s biographer, called “the unrelenting and irresistible force of nature.” The entire scene is painted in neutral earth tones – browns, ochres, beiges and blacks – perfectly suited to the turbulent, stormy sky that fills half of the composition. On the back of the canvas an alternate title – No Man’s Land – was later written and crossed out; that title seems more fitting than the original one, as the landscape is quite inhospitable, not welcoming even to the viewer. Especially remarkable is the loosely painted surface: Wyant applied his brush quickly, whipping, dragging, and swirling it to create scumbled passages. Details are difficult to discern, and the entire effect verges on abstraction. The frame surrounding the painting is quite appropriate for the landscape. It was manufactured either by or for William Clausen, a New York picture and frame dealer, around 1900. Its rich surface consists of symmetrically arranged scrollwork and acanthus leaves, in the style of French Barbizon-school frames.

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• Fort, Ilene Susan and Michael Quick.  American Art:  a Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection.  Los Angeles:  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1991.
• Cleveland, David A. A History of American Tonalism: 1880-1920. New York: Winsted Press, 2017.