In Port near Liverpool

The location of this dock is unknown. The unusual absence of any figures contributes to a sense of peace, reminiscent of Elsie Vacher’s (active in 1910s) etching ‘Shipping from the Liverpool Docks’ (WAG 1166), also in the Walker Art Gallery collection. The pair of three-masted barques are moored near a coal hoist. This scene is possibly from the Garston Docks, which opened in 1853 and had coal hoists along the quayside for unloading coal from the Lancashire mines. Dart was a Liverpool-born landscape artist who worked in watercolours and prints and exhibited at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibitions.