The Railway Station

1862

Oil on canvas, 116.7 × 256.4 cm. Royal Holloway, University of London

Crowds board a train at Paddington Station: families, a wedding party, porters and passengers of every kind.

The dealer Louis Flatow bought the painting together with the rights to exhibit and reproduce it; more than 21,000 people came to see it in seven weeks.
At the right, two real, well-known London detectives arrest a man about to board.
Modern public life in all its variety, sold as a popular spectacle.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · Public domain