Canadian painter Homer Watson (1855–1936) was intrigued by spiritualism throughout his life and Moonlit Stream, with its evocative darkness and unnatural colours, may be interpreted as supporting these ideas. Although his writings on the subject are vague, he seems to have adhered to a pantheistic approach that sought out transcendent meaning in natural phenomena. “All nature up to the horizon uttered the sombre chord that would be in unison with the refrain of the lost and the caverns of the forest vibrated in their mystic depth,” he reminisced in an undated description of experiencing a landscape at night. “[Everything] seemed connected together by invisible ties and the limits of earth seemed to mount in the air and be linked with the spirits of other worlds.”