In 1967, even as the mighty QE2 glided down the ways at the John Brown shipyard in Clydebank, predictions
abounded that she would be the very last passenger liner built for the North Atlantic. In fact, Cunard
had wisely designed her for both cruising and trans-Atlantic
crossings and thanks to sound marketing and the legendary appeal
of QE2, she continued to sail and enthral right up
until her retirement in November 2008, breaking all records as
the world's most-travelled and most successful liner ever.
The spectacular growth in the cruise industry in the late 20th Century prompted Cunard to unveil plans to build the
first true transatlantic liner since the 1960s. Heralded as the world's most expensive and largest-ever passenger liner,
Queen Mary 2 entered service in January 2004 amid a blaze of maritime publicity not seen for decades.
As part of her series of maiden voyages, QM2 in company with QE2 left New York Harbour on
the evening of 25 April 2004 at the start of a thrilling combined transatlantic crossing. Not since the 1940s had
two Cunard Queens berthed together in New York, and never before had two
Queens sailed within constant
sight of each other right across the Atlantic.
Aboard QM2 is a set of commissioned oil paintings created in 2003 by Gordon Bauwens, the maritime
artist who created Cunard's official QM2 artist impression.
Cunard Queens, one of two large works by
this artist hanging in the magnificent Grand Lobby, welcomes passengers aboard Cunard's new flagship and
features the scheduled start of this unique tandem transatlantic crossing in April 2004.
As the main 295 Ltd Edition has sold out, we can offer 25 only museum quality
Artist Proof giclee prints of this much admired painting, while stocks last.
These superb digital reproductions are produced on heavy weight 300-gramme
watercolour art paper using inks with a light-fast rating of 75 years. Each
highly collectable Artist Proof is signed and numbered by the artist and comes
with matching Certificate of Authenticity.
