It may not look it, but this is actually the most British picture of all time.

See it all starts with Edwin Landseer, obviously a British man himself. He was a lover of fancy dogs and one of Britain's first animal right’s activists. Like many famous artists he was a very well connected individual, however, very rarely do an artist’s connections so entirely encompass their era. Landseer was friends with not only Charles Dickens and William Thackeray (the writer of "Vanity Fair") but also Queen Victoria. He was her favorite painter, and at one point she even called him “very good looking although rather short.” High praise indeed.

Obviously however, it doesn’t stop there, this picture is of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." The play is supposed to take place in Greece, however the part of the story depicted is solidly dominated by British folklore and diction. In this scene Titania, Queen of the Fairies, is under the spell of a love potion and has fallen head over heels for a character called Bottom. So here we have a fairy queen, a very British idea, and the name Bottom, a very British word that has barely changed from its old english root of “botm.”

Finally, there is who the painting was commissioned for. Isambard Kingdom Brunel was a major player in the industrial revolution. He was responsible for the creation of quite a few railroads and docks for steam boats. Additionally, he was a contributor to the Thames Tunnel. How does this man of industry happen to bump elbows with an artist who liked to chill with the very anti-industrial Charles Dickens you might ask? Well the answer is that they were both knights.

So in summary: an artist who was a favorite of one of the greatest British queens, and was also friends with one of the greatest British novelists, did a painting of a play by the greatest British playwright, for a man who helped shaped the greatest period in British history.

Sadly for Britain, this painting is currently located in Australia.