Eugène Boudin was a marine and landscape painter, best known for his depictions of the fashionable beaches and bustling shipping ports along the North Sea coast. His compositions are often dominated by the interplay of sky and water, which he learned to observe as a child working on a ship with his father. In 1871, Boudin painted several views of the port of Antwerp, Belgium. Here he recorded the commercial and leisure activity on the water, with the silhouette of Antwerp Cathedral behind, capturing the rapidly moving gray clouds that still bring almost daily squalls to the city.