Hughes appears to have first visited Cornwall in September 1887. Not having been much of a traveller before then, he found the remote beauty of the county a great respite from the confinement of his semi-rural London studio. He returned to Cornwall several times over the next decade, with his final visit as late as 1909. In September 1889 he described an encounter with John Brett, staying with his family at Padstow ‘making beautiful studies about the ripples and rocks’. (Letter to W.B. Scott, September 1889, Penkill Papers, University of British Columbia, Vancouver) The influence of the Pre-Raphaelite landscape painter can clearly be seen in this view of Gurnard’s Head, with its vibrant colours and use of reflected light on the water.

Although undated the present work may well have been painted in 1890 when Hughes wrote to Scott from Cornwall that he was ‘enjoying the most heavenly weather and getting a sketch each day…I paint the loveliest skies and the bluest of seas…and there are so many views, I restrict myself to small panels that I can almost, or quite, polish off in a sitting.’ (Letter to W.B. Scott, Summer 1890, Penkill Papers, University of British Columbia, Vancouver)