Modern art takes to the waves

In 1933 Cunard commissioned paintings from Edward Wadsworth and other leading British artists for its new flagship liner, the "Queen Mary". But, as Abbie N. Sprague explains, artistic expression had to bend to commercial taste.

Cunard’s announcement that it was to commission a luxury ocean liner captured imaginations on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1930s. The shipbuilder’s contract was signed in December 1930...