This oil painting by George Housman Thomas is a copy after a watercolour by Sir Oswald Walters Brierly, Queen Victoria’s official marine painter. Brierly was invited on-board the H.M.Y. Victoria & Albert (the yacht shown at the centre of the picture) by the royal couple, in order to record a naval review they attended on Wednesday 23 April, 1856.

In her diary entry, the Queen recounted the scene at Spithead, which took just over four hours for the royal party to reach by train from Buckingham Palace, ‘The day perfectly still, — a little foggy, but with every promise of its becoming fine… We embarked immediately on board the "Victoria & Albert". It is impossible to attempt to give a detailed account, but a more magnificent Fleet cannot imagined, nor indeed could any country boast of a similar show: 250 Pennants [narrow flags flown from the mast of a ship], of which 100 were Gun Boats, & all steam!’
In this painting, the royal yacht is shown sailing down the central line of the Fleet, with the port division headed by H.M.S. The Royal George, the starboard by H.M.S. The Duke of Wellington.

Queen Victoria attributed great personal and political significance to this demonstration of naval spectacle, ‘it was a sight to be proud of, which though not wanted now, will yet have been of great use. We had Brierly, the marine painter, on board with us… without undue boasting, I may claim to be Queen of the Seas & accept the crown Neptune offers to Britannia, as depicted, in the fresco on the staircase at Osborne.’ The other painting she makes reference to here is William Dyce’s Neptune Resigning the Empire of the Seas to Britannia, produced for the grand staircase at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight in 1847.

Brierly’s earlier depiction of the scene in watercolour (RCIN 920312), is more faithful to the ‘foggy’ conditions recalled by Queen Victoria, while Thomas reproduced the same composition under a bright blue sky.

Thomas was commissioned to paint this canvas by Queen Victoria in March 1860. She knew of his work for The London Illustrated News (which he began producing engravings for in 1848), and began collecting and commissioning oil paintings from the artist after seeing his work Garibaldi at Rome, 1849 (exhibited at the Royal Academy, 1854). The Royal Collection contains fifteen paintings by the artist.