This ambitious landscape was acquired from Wilson in 1821 by one of his most loyal Scottish patrons, the 4th Earl of Hopetoun. The Earl also commissioned original views of his estate at South Queensferry and employed Wilson as a dealer to upgrade the existing Old Master collection at Hopetoun House. Painted in the tradition of Claude Lorrain, this landscape is probably a view of the coast near Genoa, perhaps at the Gulf of La Spezia, and must have been painted from memory. Between 1803 and 1806 Wilson had attempted to establish himself as a dealer in Genoa. In 1826 he settled permanently in Italy. His numerous purchases of Old Master Italian and Northern European painting included Van Dyck’s The Lomellini Family.