A specially commissioned oil painting, interpreting Private View of The Old Masters Exhibition, Royal Academy 1888 by Henry Jamyn Brooks.

This painting consists of more than 60 figures representing late Victorian Establishment, with prominent artists and critics alongside politicians and leading members of the aristocracy, placed together into a suitable setting.  The Royal Academy hosted the first Old Masters Exhibition in 1869 and included important paintings from both public and private collections. Although, Brooks did not attend the exhibition, he had access to the room where the old masters had previously hung in the Winter of 1888.  The painting was a result of Brooks challenging himself to produce a scene of complexity equivalent to "Private View at The Royal Academy, 1881" by William Powell Frith.

The original hangs at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The canvas has treated with ageing varnish, stretched and mounted in a 3.5" hand made English swept frame finished to a light antique patina.