The present watercolor is a study for the painting La pêche aux thons, painted 1966-1967 (R. Descharnes and G. Neret, op. cit. no. 1272; coll. Fondation Paul Ricard). Dalí became interested in the subject after hearing a story told by his father, and seeing in the latter's office a print of a painting of tuna fishing by one of the 19th-century academic artists known as pompiers. Dalí wrote "It is the most ambitious picture I have ever painted, because its subtitle is Hommage à Meissonnier.... Tuna Fishing is a biological spectacle par excellence, since (following my father's description) the sea, which is initially cobalt blue and by the end is totally red with blood, represents the super-aesthetic of modern biology." (ibid, pp. 567 and 577)