The artist has used light for dramatic effect, from the darkened centre of the squall in the left foreground to brilliant light in the background, where a ship in full sail is highlighted on the horizon. He has also exploited the grain of the wood panel on which the work is painted to enhance the effect of rain in the right background.

Born in Rotterdam, Simon de Vlieger was one of the important early painters in the emerging discipline of marine art. He decisively influenced the direction of Dutch marine art during the 1630s and 1640s. Significantly, as the pupil of Jan Porcellis and the master of Willem van de Velde the Younger, he provided a bridge between the second generation of Dutch marine painters and the third. He demonstrated his versatility and technical accomplishment by painting a wide variety of marine subjects and was also a sophisticated early exponent of the Dutch realist tradition. He moved away from a monochrome palette towards a silvery tonality and demonstrated a closely observed knowledge of shipping. He also painted figural representations for churches, genre scenes and landscapes, and was also an etcher.