"Malta"

In: Overland Route; Part of our Paintings gallery

Date:
c.1850s

Medium:
Watercolour on paper heightened with white bodycolour

Description:
In 1850 the Grand Harbour at Valetta was home to "a hundred ships of all nations here lying at anchor, from the stately British man-of-war to the tiny speronaro, a species of small packet which comes from Sicily". (Taken from an album of thirty-one watercolours, recording the Diorama of the Overland Mail Route from Southampton to Calcutta, and presented to Brodie McGhie Willcox, one of the founding fathers of P&O.)