Esphyr Slobodkina was a pioneer of American abstract art, but she did not always paint in an abstract style. After leaving her home country of Russia to live in Harbin, China with her family, she hoped to become an architect, but having trouble understanding geometry, she had to put that ambition aside for the time being.
When Esphyr was 19 years old, she decided to travel to the United States to join her brother Ronya who moved there in 1923. He was able to get her a student visa to study art in New York City and she arrived there in 1928.
Esphyr loved being by the sea. She painted Boats at Dock right at the end of her studies at the Academy. She was already quite an accomplished artist and at that time still painting in a more realistic style, representing objects and scenes from the world around her.