Seascape with a small ship with a Dutch flag sailing on rough water beneath a threatening sky. In this painting Mulier has adopted the grey tonal palette of the Dutch realist school. The artist has used highly conventionalised and typical Flemish stormscape motifs to create an image that, through its emphasis on the inherent power of the sea as a metaphor, is more than just a faithful rendering of the natural world. Such storm scenes have been interpreted as implying cosmic disorder, in which the storms represent that which is threatening or dangerous, either to the individual or to society. They could thus convey a political message. Here the ships may represent either individuals, or the state, at risk from external forces. Storm scenes could also invite symbolic meditation as well as emotional identification, since the ships have been caught in and diminished by the vast flux of elemental nature.