In 1888, four years before painting this picture, Richmond stayed in Volterra and painted about the hills overlooking the plain of Pisa for the background to his painting of The Bath of Venus (Aberdeen Art Gallery). His favourite time for painting was at gloaming, just after the rise of the moon. He painted our study during a later visit in 1892, but did not exhibit it until 1912 at the Fine Art Society, where the Athenaeum rated the show: ‘These are the best of the Italian subjects, which, as a rule, represent the happiest period of the artist’s landscape work.’ This study, done on the spot, employs the natural colour of the rudely prepared pine panel support to suggest the glow of the evening light through the trees.