Georges Ricard-Cordingley (1873-1939) studied under Jules Lefebvre, Benjamin-Constant and J.C. Cazin. In his early career he painted portraits and appended his English mother's maiden name, Cordingley, to his surname, Ricard. When he was twenty, Queen Victoria acquired three of his paintings (probably RCIN 406332, 406333, 403740), which she hung at Osborne. Thus began a period of great popularity for his works among the English upper classes. He detached himself from this milieu, fearing that he might give in to a life of decadence, and settled for a simpler life in Boulogne-sur-Mer. He travelled widely, for example to Newfoundland, aboard a trawler. He undertook commissions in Canada, Australia and Morocco, and made several voyages around the Mediterranean. He contributed work to exhibitions at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris, and at the Royal Academy in London. He was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the castle museum in Boulogne-sur-Mer in 2000. The singular manner in which he succeeded in capturing the fine nuances of sea mists earned him the sobriquet 'the painter of the colours of grey'.

A wide expanse of grey sea upon which, in the middle distance, a single brown-sailed ketch-type vessel moves to the right under shortened sail; dominated by a cloudy sky with touches of blue.