Arts as applied to war

This watercolour reproduces at a much reduced scale one of the two monumental frescos by Frederic Leighton commissioned in 1868 to decorate the south court of the recently opened South Kensington Museum of Art in London (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). The watercolours by George Morton – one of the students who had helped on the frescoes – were acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales to serve both as records of Britain’s recent artistic achievements and as instructional images for artists and designers, helping to foster interest in large-scale public fresco painting in the colonies.