[1] It depicts a group of men, wearing overcoats smeared in grime, standing at a dock in Brooklyn together with some draft horses.

[2][3][4][5] A writer for The Craftsman considered Men of the Docks to be "free of affectation of soul or technique", presenting a situation of solidity the way a normal man would see it, thus holding onto the scene through reality.

This tension, they write, paired with the juxtaposition of the skyline and harbor (almost hidden from land), emphasizes the precariousness of the laborers' situation.

[4] This subject of men at the New York docks was a common one for Bellows, as well as fellow Ashcan painters such as Everett Shinn.

[4][7] Men of the Docks was exhibited at the Vanderbilt Gallery of the National Academy of Design in 1912,[8] as well as Cornell University.

Students made "Missing" posters overlaid showing photocopies of Men of the Docks and the three other paintings which were to be sold.

[12] In 2012 the painting was lent to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., to be included in a comprehensive exhibition of Bellow's career.

[3] After its acquisition, Men of the Docks was hung in Room 43 of the National Gallery, between works by such European artists as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.

[1] Critic Charles Henry Meltzer, reviewing after the National Academy exhibition, described Men of the Docks as "irritating ... yet full of talent" owing to its "deliberate carelessness" in the drawing of the crowd, which he found to have character.

"[6] Alan Franham of Forbes called it "a class by itself", noting that, as opposed to the work's value of millions of dollars, prints by the artist could be bought for $50,000.

[6] The curator Christopher Riopelle considers the painting to "evoke something of the raw and unbeautiful energy of the urban experience in what was at the time one of the world's fastest-growing cities" through its "wilful awkwardness and brutality".