This watercolour study was reproduced as plate no. 17 in Wyllie's 'Marine Painting in Water-Colour' published in 1901. The accompanying text points out that:

'There is a good deal of careful drawing necessary to get this subject right, and it should be done before any painting is attempted. The sketch is just as it was made on the spot; the little group in the centre was unfinished, and it has been thought better to reproduce it just as it was left, without any after touching.'

Tarbert is a fishing village on Loch Fyne situated on the eastern coast of the Mull of Kintyre. In 1889 the Wyllies cruised the west coast of Scotland in their new yacht the 'Grey Mare', which had been built at Rosneath on the Clyde.

W.L. Wyllie, ‘Marine Painting in Water-Colour’ (London: Cassell & Company Ltd., 1901)