A watercolour depicting a topographical interior view of the Green Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. Signed and dated lower left: Douglas Morison 1843.

Morison was commissioned in 1843 by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who became keen collectors of the fashionable nineteenth-century watercolour genre of interior views, to paint a series of interiors of Buckingham Palace (RCINs 919897-919901, 919912 and 919917). All but one of these watercolours were exhibited at the Old Watercolour Society annual exhibition in 1844, and attracted a satirical review from William Makepeace Thackeray, who was writing under the pseudonym Michael Angelo Titmarsh.

This was originally the Duchess of Buckingham's Saloon, the largest room on the first floor of old Buckingham House, in the centre of the east (entrance) façade. Under the direction of Sir William Chambers in the early 1760s it was remodelled for Queen Charlotte. These alterations included the introduction of a new painted ceiling, possibly designed by James 'Athenian' Stuart, and a marble chimneypiece (now in the Queen's Presence Chamber at Windsor) designed by Robert Adam. At this date, the principal decoration consisted of the celebrated Raphael Cartoons, brought for the purpose from Hampton Court Palace. When the cartoons were removed to Windsor in 1787, the room was redecorated with trompe-l'oeil friezes and pilasters, a scheme which survived unaltered (except for the introduction of a throne and canopy for Queen Charlotte during the Regency) until the room was remodelled once more by John Nash for George IV. Apart from the introduction of a new richly modelled plaster ceiling, Nash's main structural alteration involved the replacement of Adam's chimneypiece on the north wall with a doorway leading to the Throne Room and the creation of a matching new doorway opposite, leading to the staircase.

The decoration and arrangement of the room, carried out in the main in the early 1830s under the supervision of Lord Duncannon, Chief Commissioner of the Office of Woods and Forests, included the provision of green silk hangings, made in Ireland at Queen Adelaide's suggestion, and an Axminster carpet woven in tones of russet and gold with the national emblems. To the right of the door leading to the Throne Room may be seen Copley's Three youngest daughters of George III; prominent among the furniture are the chairs and sofas by Morel & Seddon, part of the very large set originally made for the Crimson and White Drawing Rooms at Windsor.

Catalogue entry from Royal Treasures, A Golden Jubilee Celebration, London 2002