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.

This rapidly executed sketch was made from Cooke’s hotel window in Venice during his stay there in October 1857. It shows six ‘trabaccoli’, typical Venetian boats, and two smaller gondolas, presumably in the Bacino, and demonstrates Cooke’s customary interest in vessel types and their distinguishing features, as well as his ability to capture essential details with a remarkable economy of graphic means.