Commissioned November 1771 by Henry, 8th Lord Arundell of Wardour [1740-1808], Wardour Castle, Tisbury, Wiltshire;[1] by descent in his family;[2] (Arundell sale, at Wardour Castle, 10 September 1952, no. 144, as _The Storm_ [paired with _The Calm_]). (Galerie Popoff, Paris), by 1957; private collection, France; (Marc Blondeau, Paris/Sotheby's, New York); purchased 17 February 2000 by NGA. [1] The banker Henry Hoare II [1705-1785], who acted both as agent and patron for the artist, commissioned a pair of paintings on behalf of Lord Arundell. Completed and paid for by August 1772, the two paintings were _The Shipwreck_ and _Moonlight_. They remained together until shortly after the 1952 sale; the current (2001) location of _Moonlight_ is not known. [2] The line of the Arundells of Wardour became extinct with the death of John Francis Arundell, 16th Baron Arundell of Wardour, who was killed in action during World War II on 25 September 1944.