Stephen Bone was the son of the influential draughtsman and etcher Sir Muirhead Bone (1876-1953), who was an official war artist in both World Wars. Stephen Bone was appointed official war artist by the War Artists Advisory Committee in 1943, and assigned to the Admiralty. His output was prolific and notable for the unusual viewpoints from which he represented his subjects. Many of these were published in the Illustrated London News, and show a variety of naval craft (including aircraft carriers and S-class submarines), views of dockyards and scenes of life on board ship. The National Maritime Museum holds some 80 oil paintings and drawings Bone produced for the War Artists Advisory Committee.

Bone was at the Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944 and made several depictions of the subject. This shows the ‘Mulberry harbour’ towed in sections across the Channel to create a bridgehead port at Arromanches (BHC0690 depicts the same subject, but from a different viewpoint). Probably made on the spot, the painting is typically light and impressionistic, with an eye for effective composition – a style well suited to the almost journalistic demands often fulfilled by a war artist.