The Scottish-born American artist William Keith was a leading practitioner of what was termed “Tonalism,” an atmospheric and romantic style of landscape painting emphasizing mood and shadow. Keith was highly influenced by work of mid-nineteenth century artists associated with the French Barbizon school, such as Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Charles-François Daubigny, Jean-François Millet, and Theodore Rousseau. Often portraying scenes of dawn or dusk in an expressive and abstracted way, Tonalist painters sought to evoke an experience of nature that was subjective, intimate, and spiritually resonant.

Possibly inspired by Keith's excursion to Monterey the year he produced the painting, "The Glory of the Heavens" was described in 1912 as "a poem in pigments, one of those rare poetic fancies, a song without words such as only a master hand and spirit can call from the spheres." Housed in a distinctive Arts and Crafts style frame designed by Arthur Frank Mathews, the landscape evokes the distinctive light of California with its crimson and golden-hued sky.