Philippe Tanneur (1795-1878) was a pupil of the history painter Horace Vernet. His work was represented for the first time at the Salon in 1827, by three paintings of sea battles. He exhibited four seascapes at the Royal Academy in 1841. He gained the patronage of the Tsar, and entered the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, but due to unacceptable behaviour was forced to leave the city of St. Petersburg in a hurry.

The title of this work comes from the Osborne inventory and suggests that it is Dover Castle on the cliff tops. This work would appear to be influenced by Tanneur's elder contemporary and near namesake, J. M. W. Turner, though the similarity may arise through common sources within Dutch art, Jacob van Ruisdael for example. A seascape with a number of square-rigged vessels under sail in choppy waters off a coast edged with white cliffs; in the foreground, a brig with the letter R on one of its sails, with a tender coming alongside.