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.

His first destination was Barcelona, where he arrived from Marseilles by steamer. Cooke made a panoramic view of the city from the deck of a felucca. In Spain his attention was drawn principally to local sailing vessels, of which he made many sketches, often in watercolours. This drawing, dated 30 October 1860, shows a view of the waterfront of Barcelona, with the dominant presence of the Lonja de Barcelona, originally built 1380–87 and remodelled between 1774 and 1802.