Isambard Kingdom Brunel Standing Before the Launching Chains of the Great Eastern

It shows Brunel, the British engineer, during the troubled first attempt to launch the SS Great Eastern, by far the largest ship constructed to that date.

[1] In 1853 he began construction of the SS Great Eastern, six times the tonnage of any vessel built before and a statement of Britain's maritime supremacy.

[2][5] He joined the studio in 1853 and had previously carried out a commission for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to take portraits of Crimean War soldiers.

[8] One of the group photographs, which also shows three manual workers, has Brunel standing near to one of the checking drums which held long lengths of large chain used to restrain the ship as it was lowered down the ramp.

[11] In the third individual photograph (a stereogram produced in conjunction with George Downes) Brunel, wearing lighter trousers and without his pocket watch or cigar, is seated on a post in front of the chain drum.

They state that Brunel's pose conveys a sense of self-assurance and determination and note that his muddied clothing reflects his willingness to get involved with the works on site.

[7] Their notes on the photograph describe Howlett's decision to use the chains for a backdrop, rather than the ship, as "inspired" and state that it served to humanise Brunel, by "showing him dwarfed in front of one of his own creations".

[7] John Cooper's 2009 guide to the NPG collection states that the chains have come to symbolise both Brunel's ambition and the "crushing responsibilities" of work that led to his early death in 1859.

[15] In a 2013 PhD thesis Margo Lois Beggs describes the image as "arresting and at the same time paradoxical" for, although physically overshadowed by the chains Brunel manages to look "confident, in charge, and in command".

[19] Beggs considers that Howlett and Brunel were consciously or subconsciously imitating the American circus dwarf General Tom Thumb, popular at the time, when posing for the photograph.

Beggs notes that the other photographs Howlett took during the launch also feature dichotomies of scale between human figures and parts of the ship and site.

[20] The photograph and others in the series are valuable examples of environmental portraiture from a period when outdoor photography was technically challenging and many portraits were taken in a studio setting.

[16] The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) claims the image has come to represent the entire industrial era, and it has been described as "one of the most famous photographs of the nineteenth century and, possibly, of all time".

The Brunel 200 organisation, which planned his bicentenary commemorations, condemned the move and a representative of the Institution of Civil Engineers described it as "dishonest" censorship that had "parallels with Stalin".