Crossing the shoal, undated
In the storm, two English boats struggle with the violent swell. They are fishing together with a net: The direction of the line on the boat on the left indicates this. In the foreground, there are clear indications of an accident that happened a long time ago: only a piece of mast can still be seen from a ship that ran aground on a sandbank. As a warning, the spot has been marked with a wreck buoy. The change of light and colour on the moving water is fresh and unconventional.
During the Victorian era (1837-1901), the market for marine painting expands so that artists no longer need to be based in London to exhibit and sell their work. The seascapes of the local painting schools have a strong ref- erence to the study of nature and relegate the ship to a rather subordinate role. The truthful rendering of the landscape is due to the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites (named after Raphael (1483-1520)), who took their cue from Italian masters of the 14th and 15th centuries and whose detailed depictions of nature are rediscovered in the 19th century.
John Moore matriculated at the Royal Academy in 1853 and went through a Pre-Raphaelite phase of study. Between 1875-1901, he regularly exhibited his works at the annual exhibitions of the Ipswich Art Society. Moore was well known in the town in the county of Suffolk on the east coast of England, but he did not achieve national fame as he never exhibited in London.