Painted for Lady Willoughby Gordon, formerly Julia Bennet, who had been a pupil of Turner in 1797 (see Hilda F. Finberg, 'With Mr Turner in 1797' in Burlington Magazine, XCIX, 1957, pp. 48-51). What seems to be a companion picture, though never exhibited, is the 'View in the Isle of Wight near Northcourt' (Musée de Québec), Northcourt having been inherited in 1818 by Lady Gordon and her elder sister, the wife of Sir John Swinburne, another of Turner's patrons. Turner had visited the Isle of Wight, including Niton, in 1795 but did not go there again, it seems, until I827. This painting, after Lady Gordon's sketch, seems to have reawakened his interest and led to his visit the following year, just as his first Venetian oil paintings, exhibited in 1833 (see No.529), led to his second visit to Venice. Like 'What you will!' it shows a delightfully lighthearted side to Turner's art, hitherto confined to his watercolours.