Fishermen at Sea was the first oil painting Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy. It is a moonlight scene in the tradition of Horace Vernet, Philip James de Loutherbourg and Joseph Wright of Derby. These painters were largely responsible for fuelling the eighteenth-century vogue for nocturnal subjects.

The painting also reflects the fashion for Sublime subjects, which gave viewers a sense of the overwhelming power of nature. The rocks silhouetted on the left formerly dominated Freshwater Bay, on the Isle of Wight, but their appearance has since changed due to erosion.