Farquharson's reputation is based on his winter scenes depicting either light reflected off snow or blizzard conditions. His titles are often poetic or ambiguous in their simplicity. When Snow the Pasture Sheets shares a theme and title with his Diploma Work given as he was accepted into the Royal Academy in 1915.

Joseph Farquharson RA, 1846-1935

Born in Edinburgh, where his father was a doctor and amateur artist, Farquharson received his first instruction from the landscape painter and family friend Peter Graham. He then trained at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh and later spent several winters in the Paris atelier of Émile Carolus-Duran, the friend of Manet and teacher of John Singer Sargent; Farquharson formed a close friendship with the latter. Both Graham and Farquharson went on to pursue lucrative careers as London-based painters of Highland landscape.