Homeward Bound: "The Great Eastern"
The Great Eastern at anchor among other ships after laying cable: the largest harbor scene in Robert Charles Dudley's cable series. Full commentary ↓
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Homeward Bound: "The Great Eastern" is an oil painting by Robert Charles Dudley (ca. 1866) in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. It measures 113.7 × 170.8 cm.
In the pictureLarge ships with many masts float side by side in a calm harbor, and the biggest one in the middle is the Great Eastern. Small rowing boats come and go in the foreground, and on the right a shoreline and town are faintly visible. The sky is covered with thin clouds, and the museum's image is black and white.
BackgroundLaunched in 1858, the Great Eastern was the largest ship in the world at the time; it failed as a passenger liner but found new life as a cable-laying ship. This picture of the ship returning after completing its mission in 1866 is the largest in the series, 1.7 meters wide. Dudley conveys the ship's size vividly by comparing it with the vessels around it.
Puzzle tipBlack and white, with wide expanses of sky and water, it is difficult. Assemble the straight masts and the dark pieces of the hull first, then fill in the bottom with the small boats in front and the shoreline on the right. Judge the sky pieces by the brightness of the clouds, but leave them for last. 48 pieces is recommended.
- Artist
- British, 1826–1909
- Classification
- Paintings
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 113.7 x 170.8 cm
- Credit line
- Gift of Cyrus W. Field, 1892
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art ↗
In these collections: Sea and Waterside Masterpiece Puzzles
Stories about this work
- Dudley's Six Paintings of the 1866 Atlantic Cable, Made Aboard Ship
In 1866 the largest ship in the world laid a telegraph cable across the Atlantic. We read, in order, the six paintings left by an artist who sailed on the voyage.
