The Vine can be seen as an allegory of love in a garden – the woman harvests grapes for wine that intoxicates the man. The watercolours show Carl Larsson combining Rococo pastiche with plein air painting’s fidelity to nature. This genre can be interpreted in light of his love of the 18th century and his extensive illustrations for Anna Maria Lenngren’s poems "Samlade skaldeförsök", which he created in Grez, commissioned by Albert Bonnier, in 1883– 84.