This oil sketch is a preliminary study for Steamboat on the Ohio. Thomas Anshutz developed the composition in a series of photographs, pastel studies, and this oil version, which resolves the spatial relationships between the shorelines, boats, and swimmers. However, in the final painting, he altered the positions of several figures and painted the shore and sky in vivid tones of orange, mauve, yellow, and turquoise, endowing it with new emotional expressiveness.