Schumann started out as a portrait and landscape painter but became best known for his later seascapes and harbor scenes. Writers have speculated that his preference for marine subjects was influenced by a childhood experience of falling into the mill race at his father's sawmill or by his cross-ocean journey at the age of three. One critic wrote that he "catches with unfailing dexterity the kinship of the sea with the sky and the land–the storm clouds, the pouty, sulky thunderheads, or the washed sky after an April shower." Schumann built model ships for use as models for his seascapes, which sometimes featured boats and ships ranging from fishing vessels to three-masted schooners.
