The River belongs to an important series of works painted by Koerner between 1949-1950. Depicting what appears to be an everyday scene, several unrelated figure groups move across the river, passing beneath a footbridge overhead. A coxswain and coach shout orders into megaphones to a burly rowing team, a water bicyclist gazes down at an oblivious young couple in a rowboat, and at lower left a small dog circles a pair of ducklings in the water. Dr. Joseph Koerner, the artist's son, states, “The painting’s interest is in the everyday, but an everyday that harbors mysteries, some comical, some deeper.” The unusual perspective and distortions of scale convey this sense of mystery and intrigue. This is especially evident in the large scale of the bicyclist at the center of the composition, juxtaposed with the diminutive scale of the coxswain. The River was first exhibited in 1950 at the Midtown Galleries along with others from this important series. Works from this period are extremely rare, as Koerner shifted his style again in the early 1950s, abandoning Surrealism and Magic Realism for the Impressionistic style of Cézanne.