Technique

The panel (possibly mahogany) appears to have been primed in light red plus some light tan and dark brown underpainting beneath the rollers on the left. The sea is painted in long pasty ribbons of deep turquoise blue, except at the horizon where it is carefully smoothed down to look like mist. 1 The houses and figures in the foreground are painted with curiously rough loose brushstrokes, and are difficult to understand.

Conservation History

It may have been painted while actually in a paint box, so that there is a narrow unpainted margin at left and right. There is some slight abrasion along the upper and lower edges, probably from the frame.

Frame

The photo reproduced above, taken in 1904, may show it in its original frame, possibly made for the Dowdeswell exhibition of 1884. It is now in a Whistlerian slope frame dating from the early 20th century. 2