This is an early contemporary copy (1768-90) of the painting exhibited at the Free Society in 1764 as 'Sea Piece with a Squall of Rain' (no. 195), by Richard Wright (1735–75). The original, now in the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, is considered one of the most important early British marine pictures, which became known through William Woollett's 1768 engraving (which was in reverse) and promoted a LIverpool-based commercial scheme for the live transport of sea-fish inland by water-filled carts. A version of the print also appeared in France on which the authorship was mistakenly given to Vernet – to whom the original owes a stylistic debt – which has led to occasional confusions of attribution of copies. Some of these are by other hands, some painted by Wright himself. His original canvas is in a fairly long rectangular format but the copies, including this one, tend to follow the reversed image of the print and its rather more square proportion: Liverpool has a similar copy, for example. [PvdM 4/15]