Like his colleague and friend Frederick Carl Frieseke, Lawton Parker moved to Giverny around the turn of the century and began to paint the figure in various garden settings. According to Dr. William H. Gerdts, it is possible that Parker explored this theme even earlier than Frieseke. Dr. Gerdts writes, "...he tackled plein air in earnest...in his water garden in Giverny he began studying the full outdoor light on things: how foliage and dresses and naked human flesh look against the light, down the light, across the light." (W.H. Gerdts, American Impressionism, New York, 1984, p. 270)