In the early summer of 1890 Wyllie, his wife and children spent a holiday at Berck-sur-Mer in the Pas de Calais, staying at the Grand Hôtel de la Plage. Wyllie's watercolour vividly evokes the conditions that Mrs Wyllie describes later in her memoir ‘We Were One’ (1935):

'For several days we experienced beautiful calm weather, but there came a change, and the sky broke up into white, fleecy clouds, and the dry sand blew swiftly along, stinging one like so many needles. All night there was a roar of breakers, and heavy gusts of wind kept the hotel bell clanging. Rain dashed against the windows, and, trickling in, made little winding rivers that ran along the floor... The morning broke with a leaden sky, the crests of the huge waves, sparkling white, miles out at sea. Most of the luggers were anchored between two sand-banks, straining at their cables, tossed hither and thither on the huge rollers. Some few had broken loose, and Bill and I watched them through the telescope, our hearts in our mouths, as they made for the shore...'

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