E. Venis of Hastings (fl.1870–1915) appears to have been a local man (the Veness family, of which Venis is a variant, were in East Sussex since the 1600s). He had a particular intimacy with his subjects and the fishing community—the local people and their houses, the boats and net shops. He painted in all weather conditions, by sea fog, moonlight and at sunset, and captures the particularities of the sustainable style of fishing at Hastings. His works were produced in the footsteps of earlier well-known 19th-century watercolourists working at Hastings—including J.M.W. Turner, William Henry Hunt, Samuel Prout, David Cox, William Collingwood and Peter de Wint—who were all drawn to the town for its marine subjects.
