Having studied at the Lisbon Academy of Fine Arts and been granted a scholarship to continue his studies in Paris, Veloso Salgado is admitted to the Paris School of Fine Arts. His interest in history painting, in genre and mythological painting, as well as in portraiture, will not prevent him from practicing landscape painting, whose practice will testify to the same eclecticism of his other work.

In this landscape that captures the light in that brief moment of the sunset (an expressive parallel of a photographic snapshot), Veloso Salgado captures the light and the atmosphere it shapes. A dramatic and expressive sky, addressed with heavy earthy tones, occupies a large part of this composition with no other subject than the sunset over the sea. The green of the waters could be taken for that of the fields, had it not been for the fiery reflection that suggests a liquid surface, just below the horizon line.

The almost stillness of the water's surface contrasts with the heavy stormy sky, with thick clouds forming in the background. A wide strip of earthy patches suggests the storm gathering in the distance (or disappears on the horizon), over which a sky of lighter clouds welcomes the last rays of sunlight. The effect of light is shaped by multiple brushstrokes. Brighter and more transparent in the upper part of the composition, the quick brushstrokes, semi-circular and not so saturated with paint, allow the overlapping of colours and a transparency effect that enhances the suggestion of clouds crossed by sunbeams. On the other hand, the water, in green, ochre, and occasional roses, shows the application of brushstrokes that are almost parallel and tend to be straighter than those of the sky.