A watercolour view of fishing boats at Dunkirk, with boats drawn up at the shore on the right. Bonington was an English marine and landscape painter who emigrated to Calais with his family in 1817, later studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Patrick Noon considered this work to be among the group of coastal views in watercolours painted c. 1822-3 in connection with J. F. Ostervald's 'Excursion sur les côtes et dans le ports de France' (Paris, 1823-5).