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A View of the East India Docks This aerial view creates a topographical description of flatlands, river pathways and masted ships that are in motion or docked. In the immediate central foreground, attention is focused on a large enclosed quay. Several ships, with their sails down, rest in port alongside the quays. Due to the distance and perspective, figures appear as dots interspaced along the quays. Horse drawn wagons move along the perimeter as well. In the center middle ground, a smaller water enclosure contains seven large masted ships grouped closer together. To the right, a tall structure is connected to flat buildings. A pulley extends from the top floor; its chains touching the mast of the ship. Several other low structures appear on the flatlands nearby. Framing the central quay, water pathways meander to the left and right. Masted ships with sails up and at rest are placed on the serenely painted waters. The flat waterways echo the flat landscape. Evidence of habitation appears in the extreme right hand foreground, outside of the enclosure. Two and three storied structures, packed tightly together, frame the enclosure's perimeter. Flat industrial structures echo the left hand side of the composition. Background By the beginning of the nineteenth century London was the commercial center of the world. In order to accommodate the tremendous amount of import and export activity, four huge docks were created: the East India Docks, the West India Docks, London Docks, and Surrey Docks. This topographical painting indicates an early phase of development and the accommodation of ship traffic along the Thames. The flat and seemingly unpopulated London landscape in the background identifies the bow in the Thames. With an influx of commercial activity at the East India Docks, residential and warehouse structures begin to line the perimeters of the newly built quays. A town, such as London, where a man may wander for hours together without reaching the beginning of the end…this colossal centralization, this heaping together of two and a half millions of human beings at one point…has raised London to the commercial capital of the world, created the giant docks and assembled the thousand vessels that continually cover the Thames.
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