In The Fisherman's Rest Edwin Harris pictures the Newlyn fisherman in a traditional timber lined fishing hut or 'Fishermen's Rest'. Quite possibly the hut on The Old Quay, Newlyn Harbour; a medieval quay that was the Mayflower's final port of call before sailing for America.  The fisherman's gaze is drawn by the view through a window or door out into Mounts Bay; providing the artist with his preferred single light source, in this instance natural light. The fisherman is attired in full oil skins and sou'wester hat, but is clearly grabbing a moment's rest with smoking pipe in hand. Behind him hang blocks with a wicker fish basket in the corner. The room is simple and austere, its walls lined with planks. 

Harris trained at Verlat’s Royal Academy of Antwerp and following summers in Brittany with Wainwright, Bramley and Elizabeth Armstrong (later Forbes), he pioneered the Newlyn School of artists with his Birmingham friend Walter Langley.  Like other leading Newlyn artists Harris painted genre works such as Mending the nets and An Important Question, employing his favoured square brush technique with exceptional skill, but it is his portraiture that singles him out. The Lesson, The Old Salt, A Summer Afternoon and The Fisherman's Rest are such works displaying Harris’s distinct skill in portraying the natural ease of his sitters going about their everyday lives in their native environments. The artist was equally adept painting his subjects indoors, usually with the Newlyn signature single light source such as that deployed in The Fisherman's Rest, and outdoors in works such as Under the Blossom.