Pippin began The Getaway as a daytime scene with a blue sky, red barns, and a fox standing still in the snow. His inspiration to transform the work into a nighttime setting may have come from seeing Winslow Homer’s Fox Hunt at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. In Homer’s painting, the fox is pursued by crows and appears to be running for its life. In Pippin’s snowy portrayal, the fox has captured a bird and escapes in the moonlight.