This image of a youthful group dancing beside stylised, arched trees was one of Roberts’ final attempts to achieve a marriage of poetry with painting. Although the location of this Arcadian subject is Sydney Harbour from Cremorne Point, where Roberts had painted during 1894–95, he did not begin this painting until he was working in his gloomy London studio in 1904, and then later re-worked it in Australia. The composition was based on his etching, Ring o’ roses, which Roberts had made in the 1890s.