A calm view below London Bridge. Docks punctuate the lower right of the image, balancing the tall masts of the sailboats along the left. Number eleven of twelve etchings from The Grey River portfolio, this work was exhibited by the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers and Engravers in 1890 under the name Below London Bridge.

Mortimer Menpes was an Australian and British artist whose etchings were influenced by Japanese culture and etching, and the work of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. In 1886 Menpes collaborated with two writers Justin McCarthy and Rosa Praed to produce The Grey River, an illustrated book about the River Thames. The book was published in 1889, and while McCarthy and Praed’s text centred on history, many of Menpes’s illustrations show industrial scenes, such as wharves, dredges, barges and warehouses. A highly prolific artist, Menpes etched more than 500 plates on various subjects.