In September 1782 Spain tried to conclude the long siege of Gibraltar with an attack from the sea, using ten specially-designed ‘battering ships’ – the so-called ‘Floating Batteries’. A heavy artillery exchange began as they tried to knock out the British gun emplacements. However, once the British had heated up their shot to red-hot temperatures, the tide of the battle turned in their favour. Early next morning the Spanish Admiral’s ship burst into flames. A British officer, Roger Curtis, set out with gunboats to pick up survivors, but two more ships exploded as fire reached their magazines. Despite the danger, Curtis and his men managed to rescue almost 350 people in all.

The procession is that of Sir James Whitehead, Lord Mayor 1888-1889, and this picture shows it leaving the Mansion House (not seen but located to the right of the scene). The Royal Exchange can be seen behind the Lord Mayor’s state coach and his footmen, with the Bank of England on the left.

Logsdail began by painting the policemen in position early in the morning when the City was still silent. Later he positioned himself in the middle of the traffic to draw the background architecture. He painted the Lord Mayor’s coach with the horses harnessed up at their stables in Fore Street, and the coachmen and footmen posed in their liveries at his Primrose Hill studio.

La ghirlandata was translated by the artist’s brother, writer and critic William Michael Rossetti in 1884 as ‘The Lady of the Wreath’. The work was painted at Klemscott Manor in 1873, a house Rossetti shared with fellow artist and designer, William Morris. The main figure was modelled by Alexa Wilding, an aspiring actress, while May Morris posed for the angel heads.

Rossetti invites multi-sensory appeal in this work by including allusions to sound through the harp and songbird, and to scent via the flowers. Musical instruments in Rossetti’s later work are often seen as a metaphor for sexuality. The sensuous image evades narrative, instead using symbols, rich colours and textural detail to create an overall effect of beauty.

The little girl is the artist's five-year-old daughter Effie and this was the first time that he used any of his children as models. She is sitting in one of the old high-backed pews in All Saints Church, Kingston-on-Thames, which Millais hurried to paint in December 1862 shortly before they were removed. This painting was extremely popular when it was first exhibited at the Royal Academy, causing queues around the block. It was praised as a charming depiction of childhood innocence and piety. The image was frequently replicated, and even became the model for depictions of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

This picture reflects the Victorian taste for theatre and drama in painting, and treats the viewer as though they are in the front row at a play. It is the most celebrated of all representations of Act III, Scene 4 in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, when the murdered Banquo appears at a banquet. His legs giving way beneath him with terror, grey-faced Macbeth tries to avert his eyes from the shadow in the right foreground. The assembled guests' reactions are brilliantly painted, as Lady Macbeth - the principal figure in the composition - firmly grips her husband and takes control of the situation. You may easily miss it at first, but the ghost is looming, dark and terrible, in the foreground.