In his works, Spitzweg masterfully succeeds in uniting different genres, such as the landscape and the lively, genre-like multi-figure painting. In front of a scenery rendered with great love of detail, a small group of convent students hikes through the summer landscape under the supervision of concerned nuns. Equipped with parasols, sun hats and small baskets of provisions, the mood is upbeat despite the chaste dark school cloaks. The little groups of figures scattered to the left and right of the path give an idea of how difficult it might be to keep the curious and bright girls on the right path, both literally and metaphorically. On the left, a farming family is resting under a shady bush, the bright yellow flowers invite to be picked. On the right, a love couple with a hussar and a girl is on its way to a secluded bench to settle down for an amorous tête-à-tête. However, idleness and amorous adventures are unlikely to be on the nuns' agenda. Spitzweg's early years were characterized by landscape painting, and he went on several hikes in the Bavarian Alps with his painter friend Eduard Schleich. Throughout his life, Spitzweg was preoccupied with nature and the different regions, which he explored on foot or by stagecoach in the summer months. Over time, figures found their way into his landscape views; the scenery in the present picture takes a view of Dinkelsbühl in Franconia as its backdrop (Wichmann no. 1168). It is often landscape motifs that do not correspond to the academic canon that aroused Spitzweg's interest, but rather regional impressions captured during his travels. They testify to Spitzweg's knowledge of the paintings of the pre-impressionist Barbizon school and their "paysage intime", which he must have become acquainted with on his trip to Paris in 1851. The vibrancy of his landscapes is particularly fascinating, not least because of the way he renders light and shade, weather and atmosphere of the motifs, most of which were painted in summer. The expanse of space is shown to its best advantage in the elongated format so typical of him, which he skillfully fills with life from the figures in the foreground to the sky with the small swallows flying high.