A painter and theatre designer, Piper mixed with the avant-garde in England and Paris - he knew both Henry Moore and Braque, but in the late 1930s abandoned abstract art for a romantic portrayal of buildings and landscape. He later designed stained glass for Coventry Cathedral and opera sets through his friendship with Benjamin Britten. In 1944 Piper was commissioned by the Ministry of War Transport to visit the Bristol Channel ports and produce work 'concentrating on coastwise shipping, loading of unusual cargos'. This is one of a group of studies for a panorama of Cardiff docks, made while the artist was perched on the top of a refrigerated warehouse.