Throughout his career as a painter, Edward Cooke travelled extensively in Europe, visiting France, Holland, Italy, Spain, North Africa and Scandinavia. Paintings and drawings resulted from all his travels, but it is evident that the places that provided the strongest fascination for him besides the southern coastline of England were the beaches and estuaries of Holland and the topography of Venice and Italy.

Cooke’s first visit to Venice was in 1850 and he returned there a further nine times before his last visit in 1877. It was on his second trip to Venice in 1851 that Cooke met and became friends with the critic John Ruskin.

Cooke drew with insight all the details of the different Venetian craft, their construction, fittings, equipment, fishing nets and other working gear. This drawing focuses on one part of the characteristic Venetian boat, the ‘bragozzo’, with its highly distinctive, heavily decorated sails. It is these sail patterns that Cooke responds to here.