Gore was a Lincolnshire landowner and amateur marine artist. During the 1770s he travelled to Italy where he met Richard Payne Knight, also an amateur artist, and Philipp Hackert. From 1791 until his death in 1807, he was a member of the Ducal Court at Weimar where he had access to the collection of Van de Velde drawings. Here he became friendly with Goethe. Although Gore was a skilled draughtsman of contemporary subjects, he also drew 17th century shipping scenes in the manner of Van de Velde, such as this one. He also embellished original Van de Velde drawings with his own work, adding washes, pen work and sometimes colour. There are a number of these in the Museum's collection which can now better be described as being by Gore rather than by Van de Velde.