Unique watercolour of Darwin on HMS Beagle tipped to fetch upwards of £50,000 at auction

Artwork painted to amuse crew during the 1832 expedition that inspired Charles Darwin's theory of evolution is to be sold at Sotheby's in London next month

A cartoon of Charles Darwin and the crew of the HMS Beagle - believed to be the only image of the great naturalist on the voyage that inspired his theory of evolution - is to be sold at auction in December.

The watercolour, painted while the Beagle was anchored off the Patagonian coast in 1832, shows fossils and botanical specimens being hauled aboard for examination by Darwin, who commands the centre of the painting in top hat and tails.