Conder was a student in Paris in the 1890s and remained an Anglo-French painter, spending time equally in London and Paris. He liked to paint the coast of the English Channel, as if en route for Calais or Dieppe. In this view of the front at Brighton the tall manat the right is said to be the painter Walter Sickert.

It has been estimated that by 1911, fifty-five per cent of the population of England and Wales made at least one seaside trip a year. Conder painted Brighton when the 'bucket and spade' holiday arrived in British culture.