An American art photographer of independent means, Coburn spent some time in London before settling here in 1912. He learnt the photogravure process at the London County Council School of Photo-Engraving between 1906 and 1909 and acquired his own printing presses to make photogravure illustrations for his books. Coburn was a leading member of the international pictorialist movement, which had considerable influence over the status of photography as an art-form during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Like many pictorialists he was influenced by the work of the impressionist painters, notably fellow-American, James McNeill Whistler. A selection of Coburn's London views, including this one, were published under the title, London, in 1909.
