The Little Trawler is full of movement capturing a moment as the fishing boat rides a swell. As Hemy’s granddaughter, Margaret Powell expressed in ‘Master of the Sea’, 'By experimenting with broad brushstrokes and developing a catalogue of marks, he conveys in paint one brief moment caught from fleeting time.'

The sail slices through the top edge of the picture; a tactic employed by the artist to help convey the forward thrust of the boat. The medium is watercolour and egg tempera. Hemy kept a flock of chickens at Churchfield, his Falmouth residence, so that he had a ready supply of eggs for the tempera that helped him define light and shadow so strongly in this work.

This painting was first shown in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1917 (exhibit 829) and is presented in its century old RA frame, now fully restored and with the painting protected behind museum glass. The RA submission and painting title is inscribed in the artist’s hand on the verso.