Joyous summer, pleasant it was when the woods were green

Calderon was fascinated with the theme of girls reposing by water. The present picture is one of his largest and most successful compositions, and carries echoes of On the Banks of the River Clain near Poitiers (R.A. 1886, no. 369) in which the girls are depicted in medieval costume, and the The Virgin's Bower, his Royal Academy exhibit of 1870, in which two figures in classical dress draw water from a stream. A classical figure can also be seen in Springtime, his Royal Academy exhibit of 1896, no. 263.

Calderon was born at Poitiers to a French mother and Spanish father who later became professor of Spanish literature at King's College, London. After attending Leigh's Academy in Newman Street, he studied in Paris in the 1850s under François Piot, before returning to London. A member of the St John's Wood clique of artists, he was a resident of this London suburb from 1858.