in 1904, brinley married his childhood friend, kathrine gordon sanger, whom he had begun courting during the 1890s. kathrine would later achieve fame in her own right as an author of travel books. the two of them spent the next four years traveling through europe, including trips to rome, florence, venice, switzerland, and the netherlands. they then spent nearly two years in paris, where daniel was influential in organizing the new society of american painters in paris. brinley had previously been an impressionist landscape painter under twachtman's influence, but he studied art independently while abroad and began to gravitate toward the modernist school of art.