Abbott Fuller Graves kept this painting all his life. Both a souvenir and a harbinger of the artist’s budding interests in impressionist techniques and garden subjects, his sketch of the Luxembourg Gardens in Paris was painted during his first travels to Paris and Italy from 1884 to 1885. Filled with the energy of youth, the little panel shimmers with color. Looking eastward over the bassin (reflecting pool) Graves captured twin columns bearing 16th-century Italian statues – a nymph, in the foreground, and David, on the opposite side of the pool. The distant dome of the Panthéon terminates the view, while a tumble of flowers and foliage in the foreground presages the large canvases of New England gardens that would eventually become the artist’s signature motif.