Stanhope Alexander Forbes RA (1857-1947) was an Irish artist and a founding member of the influential Newlyn school of painters. He was often called ''the father of the Newlyn School''.

In the summer of 1886 Alexander Stanhope Forbes'' family spent several months in St Ives, Cornwall, for a seaside holiday. Forbes, who had recently settled at Newlyn on the rockier south coast, was often with them.

He painted this work on the spot using a flat-ended brush, known as the square-brush technique. The Newlyn School artists were at the forefront of developments in British art at this time and this composition, with its high horizon and expanse of sand in the foreground, was daring.