Pegwell Bay

Dyce was born in Aberdeen but worked mainly in London and southeast England. The watercolour, which portrays Pegwell Bay, near Ramsgate, is a preparatory study for the well known canvas of the same name (Tate). In both works Dyce compares the infinity of the sky with the rugged cliffs of the bay, testimonies to the vast geological change wrought by time. These are then contrasted with the fleeting and insignificant nature of human life, symbolized by the anonymous figures on the shore.