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We hover low over a body of choppy water in front of several rowboats filled to capacity with light-skinned men jostling and fighting each other amid larger wooden ships in this horizontal painting of a naval battle. The water transitions from tan and pale green near us to sage green in the background. A few of the men are bare-chested but most wear a wide range of colorful military uniforms or the full-sleeved shirts of sailors. A few vignettes within the bustling, action-filled boats draw our attention. For instance, at the center of the hubbub, two men wearing white shirts lean over the stern of a crowded boat, pulling two submerged men out of the water. Three other men float nearby, only their heads peeking above the water. In the same boat, another rescuer reaches for a man in the water, while yet another has pulled an unconscious or lifeless man into his arms. That rowboat bumps into several others filled with men weilding swords, long muskets, and perhaps spears. Much of the activity swirls around two men who stand in the boats to our right. One man wearing a fawn-brown uniform with gold embellishments, a white neck cloth, and a brown hat with red feathers brandishes a sword as he seizes the shirttails of a man wearing blue. The man in blue steps into another boat and clutches the mast as he raises his own sword up over his head. With eyes and mouth wide open, he looks over his shoulder toward the man in brown. Boats to our left are also filled with men but they sit in orderly rows. One man wearing a rust-orange suit and white plumed hat holds a sword in front of his body and raises his other pointer finger. A man blows a long horn behind the standing man. Other rowboats fill the space behind these, and surround three large wooden, ornately carved and decorated ships beyond. The carved insignia of the rightmost ship looms close to us along the right edge of the canvas; boats swarm around another ship in the distance at center; and flame and smoke billow from the ship to our left.

Benjamin West

The Battle of La Hogue, 1778

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 61

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 152.7 x 214 cm (60 1/8 x 84 1/4 in.)

framed: 180.3 x 241 cm (71 x 94 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Fund

Accession Number

1959.8.1

Artists / Makers

Benjamin West (painter) American, 1738 - 1820

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Overview

Seventeen years after Benjamin West settled in England, a London newspaper's review of the 1780 Royal Academy exhibition stated that The Battle of La Hogue "exceeds all that ever came from Mr. West's pencil." In 1692, Louis XIV of France had mounted an ill-fated attempt to return James II, a fellow Catholic, to the throne of England. In response, Britain and her Protestant allies, the Dutch, massed their fleets and engaged the enemy for five days off the northern French coast near La Hogue. Benjamin West condensed the events of the long battle into one dramatic composition that, by employing much artistic or poetic license, is largely propaganda.

Standing in a boat at the left, for instance, Vice Admiral George Rooke embodies heroic command with his upright posture and raised sword. Yet, in order to survey the maneuvers, he undoubtedly gave orders from a distance. Beached in the center distance is the French flagship, the Royal Sun. Actually burned and sunk a few days before this encounter, the Royal Sun is here deliberately refloated -- only to be run against the cliffs so that West might symbolize the French defeat. This complex, multi-figured panorama is an excellent example of West's influential early style, and of the balanced designs and carefully blended brushwork of eighteenth-century neoclassicism.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, pages 329-334, which is available as a free PDF at https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf

Inscription

lower left on the stern of the boat: B. West 1778. [1]

Inscription Notes

[1] The signature and inscription were found during conservation treatment by the NGA in 2019.

Provenance

Richard Grosvenor, 1st earl Grosvenor [1731-1802]; his son, Robert Grosvenor, 1st marquis of Westminster [1767-1845]; his son, Richard Grosvenor, 2nd marquis of Westminster [1795-1869]; his son, Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st duke of Westminster [1825-1899]; his grandson, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd duke of Westminster [1879-1953];[1] his estate; (sale, Sotheby's, London, 15 July 1959, no. 125); (John Nicholson Gallery, London and New York); sold 11 December 1959 to NGA.

[1] Helmut Von Erffa and Allen Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, New Haven and London, 1986: 209; for the owners' dates see George Edward Cokayne, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct or dormant, new ed., 13 vols., London, 1910-1959: 12(1959):537-542.

Associated Names

Grosvenor, 1st Earl Grosvenor, Richard
Grosvenor, 1st marquis of Westminster, Robert
Grosvenor, 2nd duke of Westminster, Hugh Richard Arthur
Grosvenor, 2nd marquis of Westminster, Richard
Grosvenor, Hugh Lupus, 1st duke of Westminster
Nicholson Gallery, John
Sotheby's

Exhibition History

1780: Royal Academy, London, 1780, no. 73, as The Destruction of the French fleet at La Hogue, 1692

1851: British Institution, London, 1851, no. 117

1857: Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Modern Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1857, no. 109.

1891: Royal Naval Exhibition, Chelsea, London, 1891, no. 296, as Destruction of the French Ships in the Bay of La Hogue, after the Battle of Barfleur, 23rd May 1692

1963: Four Centuries of American Art, Minneapolis Institute of Art, 1963-1964, unnumbered

1989: Benjamin West: American Painter at the English Court, Baltimore Museum of Art, 1989, no. 21

2001: American Heroism, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2001, no. 1, repro.

2012: Study of the Battle of La Hogue, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2012, no catalogue.

Bibliography

1780: "An Artist." A Candid Review of the Exhibition (being the twelfth) of the Royal Academy, MDCCLXXX. Dedicated to His Majesty. 2nd edition. London, 1780: 18.

1780: "Another Artist." "To the Author of A Candid Review of the Exhibition (being the twelfth) of the Royal Academy, 1780." The Gazetteer, and New Daily Advertiser (15 May 1780): 1.

1780: "Candid." "To the Printer of the Morning Chronicle." The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, 20 May 1780: 2.

1780: "Exhibition 1780." The Public Advertiser, 2 May 1780: 2.

1780: "Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The London Courant, and Westminster Chronicle (6 May 1780): 4.

1780: [Notice of the Opening of the Academy]. The London Evening-Post, 29 April - 2 May 1780: 4.

1780: "Royal Academy." The London Chronicle, 2-4 May 1780: 428.

1780: "Royal Academy." The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, 2 May 1780: 3.

1780: "The Painter's Mirror." The Morning Post, and Daily Advertiser (4 May 1780): 3.

1796: Pasquin, Anthony. Memoirs of the Royal Academicians. London, 1796: 75-76.

1805: "A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Mr. West." Public Characters of 1805. London, 1805: 561.

1805: "A Correct List of the Work of Mr. West." Universal Magazine 3, no. 19 (June 1805): 528.

1807: Barlow, Joel. The Columbiad. A Poem. Philadelphia, 1807: 310, 432 (note 45).

1808: "A Correct Catalogue of the Works of Benjamin West, Esq." La Belle Assemblée or Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine 4, Supplement (February 1808): 14, 19, 54.

1820: Galt, John. "A Catalogue of the Works of Mr. West." The Life, Studies, and Works of Benjamin West, Esq., President of the Royal Academy of London. 2 vols. London, 1820: 2:220, 225, 233.

1821: Young, John. A Catalogue of the Pictures at Grosvenor House, London; with Etchings from the Whole Collection. London, 1821: 7, no. 18, pl. 7.

1829: Smith, John Thomas. Nollekens and His Times. 2nd edition. 2 vols. London, 1829: 2:302.

1831: Hamilton, George. The English School: A Series of the Most Approved Productions in Painting and Sculpture, Executed by British Artists from the Days of Hogarth to the Present Time. 4 vols. London, 1831-1832: 4(1832):280.

1836: Passavant, Johann David. Tour of a German Artist in England. Translated by Elizabeth Eastlake. 2 vols. London, 1836: 1:158; 2:55, 221.

1838: Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Works of Art and Artists in England. 3 vols. London, 1838: 2:173, 317, 318.

1844: Jameson, Anna Brownell. Companion to the most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London. London, 1844: 284, no. 156.

1854: Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.. 3 vols. Translated by Elizabeth Rigby Eastlake. London, 1854: 2:173.

1867: Tuckerman 1867, 100-101.

1869: Dunlap, William. A History of the Rise and Progress of The Arts of Design in the United States. 2 vols. Reprinted in 3. New York, 1969 (1834): 1:65, 88-91, 93, 125.

1952: Flexner, James Thomas. "Benjamin West's American Neo-Classicism, with Documents on Benjamin West and William Williams." The New-York Historical Society Quarterly (January 1952): 41.

1962: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Treasures from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1962: 130, color repro.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 321, repro.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:378, color repro.

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 120, repro.

1970: Dickason, David Howard. "Benjamin West on William Williams: A Previously Unpublished Letter." Winterthur Portfolio 6 (1970): 132.

1970: Dickason, David Howard. William Williams - Novelist and Painter of Colonial America, 1727-1791. Bloomington, 1970: 41, 233 note 60.

1975: Kraemer, Ruth S. Drawings by Benjamin West and his son Raphael Lamar West. New York, 1975: 13-14, no. 17-18, and plate 9.

1977: Dillenberger 1977, 152, no. 141.

1978: Alberts, Robert C. Benjamin West. A Biography. Boston, 1978: 127, 132, 145, 153, 165, 182, 326, 390, 397.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 94, pl. 82.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 254, repro.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 12, no. 2, repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: color detail 2-3, 25, repro. 38-39, 40, 57.

1982: The Diary of Joseph Farington. Vols. 7 and 8. Edited by Kathryn Cave. New Haven and London, 1982: 7(1978):2503, 2757; 8(1982):2803, 2806.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 372, no. 524, color repro.

1986: Von Erffa and Staley 1986, 63, 68, color repro. 71, color detail 72-73, 75, 102, 157 note 90, 190, 206, 209-210, 222.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 16, 50, color repro. 51.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 377, repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 212, repro.

1995: Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 329-334, color repro. 331.

2011: Pergam, Elizabeth A. The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857: Entrepreneurs, Connoisseurs and the Public. Farnham and Burlington, 2011: 313.

2016: Rather, Susan. The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era. New Haven, 2016: 86-87, fig. 67.