The Swiss artist Frank Buchser painted this light-dappled scene in July 1867, during his only trip to the United States between 1866 and 1871. Capturing a solitary bather in a secluded spot along Laurel Creek, in southwest Virginia, the painting epitomizes the European fascination with the American landscape as a locus amoenus, or pleasant place imbued with natural beauty.

The self-taught artist, who began as a member of the Pope's Swiss Guard, had a peripatetic career that traversed the European continent and took him to North Africa. Working in a proto-Impressionistic style, Buchser appears more concerned with creating an atmospheric effect than in depicting the scene with topographical accuracy—indeed, the landscape is rendered from a vertiginous point of view, as if the spectator were hovering mid-stream. The nude woman, whose pink dress and hat lie discarded on the riverbank, appears blissfully unaware she is the subject of the artist's attention, heightening the sense of voyeuristic pleasure.