This rendering of night fishing by torch light in the open sea is particularly impressive. The intense darkness of the night is present throughout the composition; everything is faintly visible in the darkness, and thus the viewer’s interest is focused on the fishing sailboat in the centre, dimly lit by a lantern on its bow. On the deck of the fishing sailboat with its sails down, four fisherman are sitting, waiting for the catch, while a small dinghy is tied in the front. In the back of the scene, on the left, a large sailboat is drifting on a calm sea, and on the right, the mountainous terrain of the coast can be seen in the distance.
The rendering of night fishing is a pictorial challenge for Volanakis. He also created the work “Pyrophani - Firefishing”, 1885-1890, 64x115 cm, from the collection of the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, with distinct differences in terms of the type of vessel and the brightness of the surrounding atmosphere, while the arrangement of the composition is identical: the main subject in the centre, the sea on the left, the coast on the right.