Diana sits at the right on blue and white drapery beside a woodland pool, one leg raised, a string of pearls at her hip and a crescent-shaped jewel in her hair. A nymph kneels at the left, bending toward her foot. Two hunting dogs stand by the water, a red quiver of arrows lies near them, and dead birds and a bow lie at the lower right. The Louvre gives no story for the scene.

The Städel Museum in Frankfurt notes that François Boucher left out the classical tale of Actaeon, who saw the bathing goddess and was turned into a stag, with the two hunting dogs as its only reminder. He painted the picture in 1742 and showed it at that year's Salon. A Paris sale in 1783 sold it with a second picture, probably its companion, The Rest of Venus, now in Berlin. The Louvre bought it in 1852 for 3,200 francs.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who could see it on his visits to the museum, later said it was the first picture that took his fancy and that he loved it all his life. It is in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.