Sea Study is one of many sketches Henry Moore completed for a larger work. He was trained in an academic tradition and worked by making preliminary sketches out of doors, sometimes with particular dedication: “The canvas and chair were secured to the rail of the bridge,... and there a ‘weather cloth’ was also erected, behind which the artist and his friend (who held the box of colours) ducked whenever a very heavy shower of spray swept over the vessel. In this somewhat perilous eyrie Moore painted with all his might.” Moore was born in York. His father and four of his brothers were also painters. After studying under his father, in 1853 Moore moved to London where he began studying at the Royal Academy Schools as well as exhibiting at the Royal Academy. In 1857, while visiting Clovelly on the northwest coast of Devon, Moore began painting seascapes, a genre he continued to specialise in throughout the remainder of his career.