In the summer of 1916, John Singer Sargent felt a need for a respite from working on his mural scheme for the Boston Public Library and made plans to travel to the Candadian Rockies. Isabella Stewart Gardner took an interest in his trip and promised to buy a picture of Yoho Falls should Sargent manage to paint one. Sargent camped in a remote area under the falls and wrote to Isabella, "It is magnificent when the sun shines, which it did for the first two days. & I began a picture——that is ten days ago——and since then it has been raining and snowing steadily——provisions and temper getting low——but I shall stick it out till the sun reappears..." Sargent did indeed stick it out and Isabella purchased the picture that fall. It now hangs in the Blue Room gallery of her museum.