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In October 1888 Charles Conder was 20 and new to Melbourne, arrived from Sydney only weeks before. This stretch of beach at Mentone, on the bay south of the city, was the first thing he painted after the move, and he finished it quickly. He belonged to a small circle of young painters, later called the Heidelberg School, who wanted to catch Australian light directly rather than the softer European tones they had been taught. What he is after here is the flat, brilliant glare of a summer noon, the parasols, the bathing boxes, the heat lifting off pale sand, holidaymakers scattered along the shore. He worked at least partly out in the open air, right on the beach. Conservators cleaning the picture much later found grains of sand still caught in the paint, pressed in while it was wet.