Circular watercolour studies of ships in Venice; two are of private yachts and the other two depict traditional fishing craft. Each is signed with initials.

Brierly worked for three members of the Royal family through his long career as a marine painter, and after his death his daughter recorded that the interest Queen Victoria had always taken in his work had been ‘one of the happiest memories that remained with him and cheered him to the very last’.

These four works were painted for Queen Victoria, who first commissioned him in 1856 to record that year's Naval Review (see RCINs 920312 and 920311). These were perhaps executed during one of Brierly's trips to Venice; he went in 1874 and 1882 with Edward Goodall.