Charles Dixon was one of the most accomplished marine artists of his generation and produced a large body of work relating to shipping on the River Thames. ‘The Pool’ of London is the name given to the wide section of the Thames at the western end of the former London Docks.

With the Tower Bridge in the background, Dixon effectively captures the busy, bustling port scene of London. Dixon was a master of the watercolour medium. Here he used broad washes of colour for the atmospheric effects, but a tighter, more controlled technique for the shipping details.

Dixon was born at Goring in Oxfordshire and was the son of the artist Alfred Dixon. He began exhibiting with the Royal Academy from 1889 and was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1900. He was a keen yachtsman and lived on the Sussex coast at Itchenor.