Morisot gives a spontaneous image of the two women waiting for the boat to be pushed from shore. However, this spontaneity can be described as relative. Her composition is extremely well thought out, as evidenced, among other things, by a watercolor study for this painting, in which she replicates the motif almost identically. The women depicted are not accidental extras either, but professional models. The two women also posed for Édouard Manet and were painted once again by Morisot later that summer, also in the Bois de Boulogne, while picking flowers.
