The vegetable patch is bathed in sunlight. Carl Larsson’s portrayal of light is so realistic that we almost share the girl’s experience of being blinded by it. There is not much shade in this picture. That is because the sun is high in the sky, but the artist has probably also chosen to leave it out to maximize the effect of strong sunlight. The painting was made in the international artist colony in Grez-sur-Loing south of Paris, where Larsson developed his watercolour technique in 1883–1884, in lighting conditions that were different from Sweden.