Salomon Leonardus ('Samuel') Verveer was a student at the Academy in The Hague before entering Bartholomeus van Hove's studio, where he befriended his fellow student Johannes Bosboom. Verveer developed into a versatile artist who painted town views, landscapes, and river and harbour scenes. Although embedded in the Romantic tradition, many of his paintings have the same realist qualities as the best pictures of contemporary artists, later included in The Hague School. Verveer was also a highly regarded member of Pulchri Studio, the artist’s society that was at the heart of The Hague School, and it is most likely due to his death in 1876 that he is not counted among them. He therefore occupies a position between the Romantic tradition and the realism of The Hague School.

One of the most important themes of The Hague School painters was first explored by Verveer and Andreas Schelfhout (1787-1870), the leading landscape painter of the Romantic School. The lives and work of the fisher folk in Scheveningen, The Hague’s beach destination, became a main motif later in the century for Hague School painters like Mesdag, Artz, Weissenbruch and Blommers. The Hague bloomed as the centre of Dutch painting in the second half of the century due to its combination of geographical attributes that stimulated the artist's imagination: a pleasant city with the polders on one side, and the dunes, beach and the North Sea on the other. Verveer was particularly drawn to the picturesque town of Scheveningen and the locals with their traditional dress. The rough life of the fisherman gave him the opportunity to introduce a certain sentiment and narrative in his paintings, much like Jozef Israels in many of his Scheveningen interiors.