A view of the river Thames showing the Hermitage Coal Wharf and other wharves in Wapping. The warehouses on the left have signs which read “Fred Vink &Co / Rope & Sail Makers / Smith & Son / Hermitage Coal Wharf.” Down the shore on the right a warehouse sign reads “Hore’s Wharf.” This is a busy scene with several sailing ships and lighters. The Coal Wharf later became the Hermitage Steam Wharf, from where the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company ran regular services to Leith.

Born in Massachusetts, Whistler was not strictly a marine painter, but he did produce many views of the Thames. This print was one of Whistler's 'Series of Sixteen Etchings on the Thames', published by by Frederick Standridge Ellis in 1871. He etched the plates for these prints after he moved to Wapping in 1859. He worked directly with his subjects and by doing so, succeeded in highlighting the existence of a working-class maritime community in the city of London. The work is signed and dated ‘Whistler 1859’, lower right.