Although born in Nottinghamshire, Bonington spent most of his short career in France after his father emigrated to Calais. The artist is widely recognised today for his influence on the development of plein air (out of doors) landscape painting and as an important forerunner of Impressionism. The Normandy fishing village of Trouville-sur-Mer, which Bonington is known to have visited in the mid-1820s, was popular with painters.