After his mother's death in 1906, Sargent decided to undertake less commissions and spend more time painting on the continent with his sisters, Emily and Violet Ormond and her young family. The party often included Miss Eliza Wedgwood, the Misses Barnard or the Austrian painter, Wilfrid Von Glehn and his American wife, Jane. A favourite location was Purtud in the Swiss Alps at the head of the Val d'Aosta where Sargent and his party spent three successive summers.
The Alpine streams and ponds feature prominently in the watercolours and oils of Putrud
(see The Hon E. Charteris, John Sargent, New York, 1927, p.170)

This work will be included in the John Singer Sargent catalogue raisonne by Odille Duff and Richard Ormond