'Returning Home', 1858

Oil on canvas by Henry Nelson O'Neil (1817-1880), 1860.

Injured soldier in campaign dress, wearing a medal, with arm in a sling, embracing a woman wearing a head scarf.

A study for the painting entitled 'Home Again' by Henry Nelson O'Neill, 1860 (NAM. 1988-06-49-1). The two models appear in the finished picture, but in different poses. In the larger canvas the injured sergeant is being helped down a troopship's gangplank. The woman features in a similar pose, gazing up at a bearded Scottish soldier but dressed all in black.

'Home Again' depicts soldiers disembarking from a troopship at Gravesend, on their return from the Indian Mutiny (1857-1859). About 40,000 British troops were sent to India to suppress the mutiny among the Indian troops of the East India Company's Bengal Army.