It is probable that this watercolour dates from a holiday the Wyllie's took at Berck-sur-Mer in 1891 for the sake of the health their daughter, Eva. The fishing boats and people provided subjects for Wyllie, and Mrs Wyllie wrote of the individuals they encountered, the 'old woman who led a cow along the beach selling milk' and, 'Louise Bailly, the mother of twenty children' who 'came briskly home from shrimping. She owned stake nets and a donkey cart, and at the "Blessing of the Sea" appeared in broadcloth and the whitest of caps.'

M.A. Wyllie, ‘We Were One’ (London: Bell & Son Ltd., 1935)