An estuarial French port scene at low tide, possibly at Honfleur in Normandy, or a similar location, with two fishing boats lying dried out on the shore in the foreground. Several men can be seen working on the boat with red sails. Sharply gabled houses rise up to the right looking out across the river or inlet, which is spanned by a stone bridge leading up and left out of the frame in the middle distance. This implies that the viewer has his back to the sea and that the houses face a similar scene on the opposite side of the bridge. Steps descend to the shore at the junction of the bridge and the quay wall, centre right, with shops just visible in the ground floors of the houses behind.

The artist was a well-known French genre painter, who in 1820 travelled first to Normandy and then to Britain. On several occasions he returned to Normandy, painting seascapes and landscapes that helped to solidify his reputation as one of the leading proponents of Romantic views, both dramatic and placid. Isabey also made drawings of other scenic areas of France to illustrate travel volumes and dashed off many landscape drawings and watercolours throughout his life. He was inspired by Dutch and Flemish painting of the 17th century, often including figures in historical costume, and in 1831 this led to his appointment as one of Louis-Philippe's court painters In his later years, he painted brightly coloured scenes of violence, massacres, duels, and looting.