Simpson was sent by the print publishers Colnaghi to record the events in the Baltic at the beginning of the Russian War and in 1854 he went to the Crimea. Although in his own day he was thought of as a 'black and white artist' (he later worked as an illustrator for the 'Illustrated London News') he was an accomplished and sensitive watercolourist as this example shows. It bears the inscription 'Prince Woronzoff's Palace - near Yalta on the South Coast of the Crimea. In the morning as the fleet was returning, after sailing on the first expedition to Kertch, the ROYAL ALBERT, with the Admirals Staff on board, and accompanied by a small gun boat, stood close in shore, to have a near view of this magnificent Palace'.