Joseph Rusling Meeker served as a paymaster on a gunboat in the American south during the Civil War and subsequently made it part of his life's work to paint scenes from those places. He is known for his mastery of light and his skies are among the best of his era.

This painting features a moonlit southern landscape, executed as oil paint on F.W. Devoe & Co artist board and is unsigned. It has a canoe beneath a twisted tree in the foreground with a lake with several rowing boats in front of rolling hills. The night sky is filled with clouds which partially obscure the moon.