Simon de Vlieger was one of the leading marine painters of his days and counted Willem van de Velde the Younger among his pupils. His oeuvre shows a transition from a muted tonality in the early works, much under influence of Jan Porcellis, towards the more classical style of Jan van de Cappelle and the Van de Veldes in his later pictures, of which the present work is an example. As George Keyes remarks in respect to de Vlieger’s work, ‘depressingly little survives to this day.’