The Mediterranean fishing port of Port Vendres with its rocky hillsides that rise steeply from the seafront was a magnet for several European artists in the earlier part of the twentieth century. Perhaps the most famous of these was the Scottish architect and painter Charles Rennie Mackintosh who first arrived in the port in 1923 and lived there until ill-health forced him to return to London in 1927 (where he died in the following year). Other British artists in his circle there included the painters Rudolph Ihlee and Edgar Hereford whose strong graphic landscapes of the region are rich in Mediterranean colour and tone. Fry made a number of trips to France, including to Cassis further round the coast. He is known to have travelled to Port Vendres as part of an extensive trip to Europe in 1928 and it can be assumed that this painting of the harbour dates from that trip.