Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Review at Spithead, 26 June 1897 by Charles Dixon, 1898. Repro ID: BHC0645 ©National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, LondonSeen against the dramatic innovations in art of the 19th and early 20th centuries, marine painting remained conservative.

In the late-Victorian period both Wyllie and Dixon worked as illustrators for popular magazines, such as the Graphic and the Illustrated London News. They also exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy and their grand imperial subjects, such as those on display in this room, combined pomp with reporting current events.

Converting a Cunarder to a Merchant Ship by Herbert Barnard John Everett, 1918. Repro ID: BHC1382. ©National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, LondonEdouardo de Martino was an Italian who had worked in South America in 1868–69, recording the war between Brazil and Paraguay. From the late 1870s he enjoyed particular success with the British establishment and in 1895 succeeded Sir Oswald Brierly as Marine Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria.

In contrast, John Everett's life exemplified that of a bohemian artist, like his friend Augustus John. Everett’s work was inspired by his own voyages round the world and he had a unique personal style. His paintings of life on board sailing and steam ships have an immediacy echoed in the work of the official war artists of the 1940s.