"The Frontispiece"

In: Overland Route; Part of our Paintings gallery

Date:
c.1850

Medium:
Watercolour on paper heightened with white bodycolour

Description:
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. The Company helped with funds for the diorama, the loan of 'Oriental Costumes' for the production (seen in the painting here) and granted free passage to two gentleman, Messrs Grieve and Telbin, from the Gallery of Illustration, "who were about to proceed to Spain and Portugal for the purpose of taking sketches to form the subject of a new Diorama" (P&O Board Minutes 1850).