Isambard Kingdom Brunel was the quintessential engineer-hero of Britain’s Industrial Revolution, building railways, terminals, tunnels, dry docks, piers, and bridges. Here, he stands before the giant chains wound around huge checking drums to serve as restraints in the launching of the Great Eastern, by far the largest ship then afloat. Robert Howlett’s portrait, made the day before the ship’s planned launching, shows Brunel in mud-spattered trousers and boots, a man of self-assurance and determination, involved in all the aspects of the job.