The spring grotto of the Loue, a tributary stream of the Doubs flowing through Ornans, has been painted several times by Courbet. The larger version, painted in 1864 and located at the Kunsthalle Hamburg, shares the closest relationship to the Zurich painting (98 x 130.5 cm; Robert Fernier: La vie et l'oeuvre de Gustave Courbet. Catalogue raisonné (Lausanne/Paris 1978), no. 394).