This drawing shows the harbour at Boscastle in Cornwall. The artist visited the town with his new wife, Felicitas Vogler, in the winter of 1957 during a tour of Cornwall. However, the Cornish landscape had been a great influence on Nicholson since he moved there from London in 1939. Nicholson’s drawings are characterised by a simple but powerful use of line. From the late 1940s he adopted the practice of preparing a number of sheets of paper with a colour wash before selecting the most appropriate piece for each drawing. This work was made on top of an oil wash, which acted as a stimulus for the drawing.