25 March 2016

Friday

The subject of Eastward Ho! by Henry Nelson O’Neil is the scene on a steamer bound for Calcutta that was taking the troops to the Indian ‘‘Mutiny’’(1857-9, otherwise known as the First Indian War of Independence). The painting was shown at the 1858 Royal Academy Exhibition along with In Memoriam (on the Post yesterday); it was so popular that it toured Britain and an estimated half a million people saw it. There is more on the painting here and here.