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Iványi painted "Between Crags" at the beginning of his Nagybánya period. "In the Valley" (1901) can be looked upon as its direct predecessor or as a figural variation, where Izvora-valley is depicted in almost the same angle as in the present picture, but there is a couple instead of a group of people here. Iványi prepared sketches of the woman on the left and the man on the right and he also did quite a few studies of figures, heads and compositions before he had painted his picture. There is a group of people in "kuruts" costumes in the foreground. They are singing. The theatrical posture of figures standing and the old-fashioned style of clothing are suggestive of a romantic approach.
This kind of portrayal can be considered as a late manifestation of historical subject matters which have survived without actually being linked to any definite event. When Iványi painted the picture, he had already acquired all skills of impressionism: he constructed the picture of shades of green and multicoloured patches. Faces of figures reflect colours of light. Radiation from the left makes the yellow of the man's silk mantle, the red of his cap and the white patches of the woman's clothes brighter. Figures have definite silhouettes. A major characteristic of Iványi's is still to come: the integration of man and landscape.
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