Sea Piece with Sunset

Loutherbourg was a British-French painter, engraver and aquatint-etcher whose influence extended to English Romantic painting.

In this large-scale painting, the artist conveys a southern atmosphere. High, rugged cliffs topped by a prominent fortress, and a town in the far distance take up the left half of the picture; on the right is a Dutch frigate, behind which the seascape fades into the southern mist and the setting sun. In the foreground, fishermen engaged in various activities give the painting the necessary natural touch.
This idyllic view of southern climes and the yearning for faraway places brought Loutherbourg commissions from all over Europe, particularly from English and French aristocrats and Dutch merchants.