The Coast of Spain at Salabrena

The present work was executed on 19 January 1832 during Delacroix's Mediterranean passage from Toulon to Tangier, five days before reaching Tangier for the start of his North African tour. On the same day, Delacroix made a similar view, slightly more distant from the shore, which is now in the Musée du Louvre (see L. Johnson, op. cit., no. 22).

These views, including a pastel, The Sea at Sunset, (see L. Johnson, op. cit., no. 20) are some of Delacroix's earliest securely datable sky and landscape studies.