Bomberg, as a son of Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, growing up in London’s East End, was heavily influenced by the social conditions of his upbringing and drawn to images of the ordinary people of Britain’s working-class. A theme he would return to again and again was the so-called ‘bargee women’ who worked and lived along the canals. Typical of his work of this time, these working women are presented in a stripped-down, geometric style, but with a strong sense of physicality and presence. Here, Bomberg successfully depicts the unrelenting energy of human life. His dynamic use of thick red impasto and soft ochres with violent dashes of black shows figures interlocked and bent double, but determinedly battling the hardships of daily industrial life.