View across the river Thames with a timber yard in the foreground and St. Paul's Cathedral beyond

Born in Scotland in 1757, the artist began his career as a shipwright, before turning to painting marine subjects. He had moved to London by 1787, when he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, he also exhibited at the British Institution from 1810 to 1826. He was a friend of Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817) and between 1793 and 1796 both artists lived in Bell Street, Paddington.