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The United Netherlands and especially the maritime province of Holland had already overtaken Spain and Portugal as the leading maritime power, and cities such as Amsterdam advanced to become economic centres of trade. These developments had a marked influence on the artistic trends in the Netherlands in the 17th century. More and more painters were preoccupied with the maritime world. A large number of seascapes, beach and dune landscapes also found numerous passionate collectors. With Simon de Vlieger, his pupil Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707) or Jan van de Capelle (1626-1679), Dutch marine painting was at its peak.
Simon de Vlieger belonged to a handful of Dutch painters who already achieved prosperity and fame during their lifetime. As a pupil of Jan Porcellis (1582-1632) and Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-1993), the painter continued the development of this popular genre of landscape painting. Initially still dominated by a strict, almost monochrome tonality, Vlieger's treatment of light and clouds as well as finely coordinated ochre, blue and grey tones gradually lend his paintings ever more convincing pictorial depth and impressive atmosphere. He also developed the typical short wave beat and the almost rippling spray of the storm-tossed sea.
Landscape depictions formed only a part of his oeuvre. The painter and graphic artist Vlieger produced patterns for tapestries, interior decorations for burghers' houses in Delft, as well as decoration designs for the festivities in honour of the entry of Maria de' Medici into Amsterdam. In his later years, Vlieger was commissioned to paint the organ doors in the Grote Kerk in Rotterdam and the windows on the south side of the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam.