Florian Grospietsch was considered an excellent landscape painter in his time, but little is known about him today. He lived in Italy for several years from 1820. We must rely on an inscription on the reverse of the stretcher frame to confirm his authorship of the painting. It shows the stormy sea off Capri. On the left, a boat with three oarsmen struggles with the waves; on the right, a sailing ship lies in the wind. The actual subject of the painting, however, is the colour change from the intensely green, turbulent sea in the foreground to the calmer blue water towards the island.