From 1876 McTaggart returned summer after summer to his native Kintyre in the west of Scotland to ‘court the sea’, lured by the everchanging light, the remarkable translucency of the water, and the sense of vastness produced by the unbroken horizon of Machrihanish Bay. With its exquisite colour harmonies, this tranquil picture probably dates from the late 1870s when the artist was preoccupied with a quest for overall tonal and textural unity. Quiet Sunset was once owned by his son-in-law and first biographer, Sir James Lewis Caw, who rated McTaggart as the equal of JMW Turner as a marine painter.