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The Boating Party depicts an unknown woman, baby, and man in a sailboat. The boat has a canoe stern, is boomless, and has three thwarts. Cassatt uses bold, dark colors to depict the boatman and bright yellow to contrast the boat and its passengers. The child is held in the woman’s lap with the man facing them and his back to the audience. Griselda Pollock notes that the man in the painting is dressed in a refined version of the local fisherman’s clothing which is shown through the sash around his waist and the floppy beret atop his head.It is an unusual painting in Cassatt's œuvre. While it does show her familiar theme of a mother and child, most of her other paintings are set in interiors or in gardens. It is also one of her largest oil paintings.