It depicts "Flowerpot Island", also known as the Camembert, and the gangplank to La Grenouillère, a floating restaurant and boat-hire on the Seine at Croissy-sur-Seine.

[2] The painting here and one in the London National Gallery (Bathers at La Grenouillere, oil on canvas, 73 x 92 cm) are probably the sketches mentioned by Monet in his letter.

La Grenouillère was a popular middle-class resort consisting of a spa, a boating establishment and a floating café.

Optimistically promoted as "Trouville-sur-Seine", it was located on the Seine near Bougival, easily accessible by train from Paris and had just been favoured with a visit by Emperor Napoleon III with his wife and son.

Monet and Renoir both recognized in La Grenouillère an ideal subject for the images of leisure they hoped to sell.