[1] At the time of its acquisition by the Louvre it was thought to be an early work by Nicolaes Maes.

During the 1920s and 1930s many art historians raised doubts as to the attribution and suggested its style was closer to that of other artists, such as Jacob van Loo.

[2] Various alternative attributions have been proposed over the years including to François Verwilt, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Godfried Schalcken, Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten, Jan Vermeer, Cornelis Bisschop and Justus de Gelder.

[1] While the painting appears to solely depict an idyllic genre scene of children having fun in and around a boat on the water, various elements point to an underlying moral lesson.

The child leaning on a floating tree trunk points to the fragility of an existence built on uncertain foundations while the imprudent swimmer who has fallen into the water may symbolise the error of those who have relied too much on their own knowledge and neglected to call for help from others.