City life in all its aspects came to play a central role in the lives of modernist artists in the early 20th century and would quickly become a recurring theme in Sigrid Hjertén’s art. During the war years she painted the surroundings near Slussen in Stockholm which she viewed from her first studio near Kornhamnstorg, and later from the apartment on Katarinavägen. Hjertén was fascinated by the intense modern and mechanized activity down at the city docks “Stadsgårdskajen”. Goods were transferred off trains by dockside cranes and loaded onto waiting boats in the harbour. What differentiates her paintings from similar images by her husband Isaac Grünewald and Einar Jolin is the refined aerial perspective and her feeling for atmospheric effects.