Cooke made numerous trips throughout Europe and North Africa. In 1860, in company with Robert Bateman, he undertook a journey around Spain towards Tangier. A new, more luminous quality began to pervade the colours in his work. The light of the Mediterranean can be seen even in his pencil sketches, which show clarity and the sense of exoticism that Spain awakened in European travellers.

After staying in Barcelona and Valencia, from where they made a detour to Madrid, they continued on their route along the east coast of Spain, visiting Cartagena and Alicante, where Cooke completed a series of drawings in different towns and villages such as Orihuela.

This drawing shows a panoramic view of the town of Orihuela, centred on the rapids of the river around which the buildings of the town are ranged. Among these we can identify the 14–15th-century Gothic church of Santa Justa y Rufina, with its striking Gothic tower, the 18th-century Bishop’s Palace, and the Diocesan Seminary of San Miguel, built between the 17th and 19th centuries. Cooke’s drawing concentrates on the picturesque aspect of these and the overall townscape, as they sit between the hills in the distance and the river in the foreground.