Courbet is thought to have painted this lush landscape at Fontcouverte, in the Saintonge region of western France. In the summer of 1862 he sketched there alongside Louis-Augustin Auguin (1824-1904), its probable first owner. The canvas may have been included in an exhibition that Courbet and Auguin helped to organize at Saintes in early 1863. Another view of Fontcouverte was exhibited as a collaboration between the artists (whereabouts unknown).