The painting represents the artist's post-war return to his home and studio at Durham Wharf in Chiswick, offering a whimsical, vivid perspective on the tidal flooding for which the area is famous. Painted in 1945, shortly after the artist had been discharged from the Royal Engineers after spending much of World War II serving in North Africa and Palestine as a Camouflage Officer.

The Thames was a constant source of inspiration to Trevelyan. He wrote in 1957: “Here [at Durham Wharf] … I put down my tap-root; My life was measured by its tides, and my dreams were peopled by its swans and seagulls. It has become the backcloth to all my various activities and has remained so ever since.”