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We look onto the side of a rowboat crowded with nine men trying to save a pale, nude young man who flails in the water in front of us as a shark approaches, mouth agape, from our right in this horizontal painting. In the water, the man floats with his chest facing the sky, his right arm overhead and the other stretched out by his side. Extending to our left, his left leg is bent and the right leg is straight, disappearing below the knee. His long blond hair swirls in the water and he arches his back, his wide-open eyes looking toward the shark behind him. To our right, the shark rolls up out of the water with its gaping jaws showing rows of pointed teeth. In the boat, eight of the men have light or tanned complexions, and one man has dark brown skin. The man with brown skin stands at the back center of the boat, and he holds one end of a rope, which falls across the boat and around the upper arm of the man in the water. Another man stands at the stern of the boat, to our right, poised with a long, hooked harpoon over the side of the boat, ready to strike the shark. His long dark hair blows back and he wears a navy-blue jacket with brass buttons, white breeches, blue stockings, and his shoes have silver buckles. Two other men wearing white shirts with blousy sleeves lean over the side of the boat, bracing each other as they reach toward the man in the water. An older, balding man holds the shirt and body of one of this pair and looks on, his mouth open. The other men hold long oars and look into the water with furrowed brows. The tip of a shark’s tail slices through the water to our right of the boat, near the right edge of the canvas. Along the horizon line, which comes three-quarters of the way up the composition, buildings and tall spires line the harbor. The masts of boats at port creates a row of crosses against the light blue sky. Steely gray clouds sweep across the upper left corner of the canvas and the sky lightens to pale, butter yellow at the horizon.

John Singleton Copley

Watson and the Shark, 1778

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 60-B

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 182.1 x 229.7 cm (71 11/16 x 90 7/16 in.)

framed: 241.3 x 264.2 x 10.1 cm (95 x 104 x 4 in.)

Credit Line

Ferdinand Lammot Belin Fund

Accession Number

1963.6.1

Artists / Makers

John Singleton Copley (painter) American, 1738 - 1815

Image Use

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Overview

Watson and the Shark's exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1778 generated a sensation, partly because such a grisly subject was an absolute novelty. In 1749, 14–year–old Brook Watson had been attacked by a shark while swimming in Havana Harbor. Copley's pictorial account of the traumatic ordeal shows nine seamen rushing to help the boy, while the bloody water proves he has just lost his right foot. To lend equal believability to the setting Copley, who had never visited the Caribbean, consulted maps and prints of Cuba.

The rescuers' anxious expressions and actions reveal both concern for their thrashing companion and a growing awareness of their own peril. Time stands still as the viewer is forced to ponder Watson's fate. Miraculously, he was saved from almost certain death and went on to become a successful British merchant and politician.

Although Copley underscored the scene's tension and immediacy, the seemingly spontaneous poses actually were based on art historical precedents. The harpooner's pose, for example, recalls Raphael's altarpiece of the Archangel Michael using a spear to drive Satan out of heaven. The oil painting's enormous acclaim ensured Copley's appointment to the prestigious Royal Academy, and he earned a fortune selling engravings of its design.

More information on this painting can be found in the Gallery publication American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century, pages 54-71, which is available as a free PDF at https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/american-paintings-18th-century.pdf

Inscription

center left, inside boat: JSCopley.P.1778-

Provenance

Brook Watson [1735-1807], London and East Sheen, Surrey; bequeathed to Christ's Hospital, London;[1] purchased 1963 by NGA.

[1] Watson's will, dated 12 August 1803, states: "I give and bequeath my Picture painted by Mr. Copley which represents the accident by which I lost my Leg in the Harbour of the Havannah in the Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty Nine to the Governors of Christs Hospital to be delivered to them immediately after the Decease of my Wife Helen Watson or before if she shall think proper so to do hoping the said worthy Governors will receive the same as a testimony of the high estimation in which I hold that most Excellent Charity and that they will allow it to be hung up in the Hall of their Hospital as holding out a most usefull Lesson to Youth." (Public Record Office, London; copy, NGA curatorial file). The school's committee of almoners voted 28 September 1819 to accept the painting and place it in the great hall (minutes of a meeting of the Board of Almoners, Christ's Hospital, 28 September 1819; extract, NGA curatorial file). The hospital was founded in London in 1553 and was moved to Horsham, Essex, in 1902; Encyclopaedia Britannica (11th ed., New York, 1910), 6: 295-296.

Associated Names

Christ's Hospital
Watson, Brook

Exhibition History

1778: Royal Academy, London, 1778, no. 65.

1857: Art Treasures of the United Kingdom: Paintings by Modern Masters, Art Treasures Palace, Manchester, 1857, unnumbered in catalogue, p. 82.

1946: American Painting from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day, Tate Gallery, London, 1946, no. 49.

1951: The First Hundred Years of the Royal Academy, 1796-1868, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1951-1952, no. 420.

1965: John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1965-1966, no. 68a (shown only in Washington).

1968: Royal Academy of Arts Bicentenary Exhibition, 1768-1968, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1968-1969, no. 505.

1988: Bilder aus der Neuen Welt, Amerikanische Malerei des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Nationalgalerie, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin; Kunsthaus, Zürich, 1988-1989, no. 7.

1990: Facing History; The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; The Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1990, unnumbered.

1992: John Singleton Copley's "Watson and the Shark", The Detroit Institute of Arts; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1992-1993, brochure, cover and fig. 1.

1995: John Singleton Copley in England, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1995-1996, no. 4, repro.

2009: American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life 1765-1915, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2009-2010, unnumbered catalogue, fig. 100.

2013: American Adversaries: West and Copley in a Transatlantic World, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2013-2014, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

Bibliography

n.d.: Perkins, Augustus Thorndike. Supplementary List of Paintings by John Singleton Copley. Boston, n.d.: 9.

1778: "A Young Painter," [Letter to the Editor.] The General Advertiser, and Morning Intelligencer, 19 May 1778.

1778: The General Advertiser, and Morning Intelligencer, 27 April 1778.

1778: The General Evening Post, 28-30 April 1778.

1778: The Morning Chronicle, and London Advertiser, 25 April 1778.

1778: The Morning Post, and Daily Advertiser (London), 25 April 1778.

1778: The Public Advertiser, 28 April 1778.

1778: The St. James's Chronicle; or, British Evening-Post, 25-30 April 1778.

1796: Pasquin, Anthony. Memoirs of the Royal Academicians. London, 1796: 136-137.

1824: Neal, John. [Essay on American Art] Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 16 (August 1824). Reprinted in Observations on Amer. Art, Selections ... Writings of John Neal (1793- 1876). H. Dickson, ed. State College, PA., 1943: 26-27.

1829: Knapp, Samuel L. Lectures on American Literature, with Remarks on some Passages of American History. New York, 1829: 191.

1829: Lieber, Francis, ed. Encyclopaedia Americana, 13 vols. Philadelphia, 1829-1833: 3 (1830): 520.

1832: Cunningham, Allan. The Lives of the Most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. London, 1829-1833: 5 (1832):177-178.

1834: Trollope, William. A History of the Royal Foundation of Christ's Hospital. London, 1834: 353.

1841: Everett, Edward. "Curiousity Baffled." The Boston Book. Boston, 1841: 228-248.

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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): 1:106, 116-118, 120, 127.

1873: Perkins, Augustus Thorndike. A Sketch of the Life and a List of Some of the Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1873: 20-21, 128.

1881: Amory, Marth Babcock. "John Singleton Copley, R.A." Scribner's Monthley21 (March 1881): 765, engraved repro., 771.

1882: Amory, Martha Babcock. The Domestic and Artistic Life of John Singleton Copley, R.A.. Boston, 1882: 70-75.

1905: Graves, Algernon. The Royal Academy of Arts: A Complete Dictionary of Contributors and their Work from its Foundation in 1769 to 1904. 8 vols. London, 1905-1906: 2:159.

1905: Isham, Samuel. The History of American Painting. New York, 1905: 26, 38.

1913: Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813-1912. 5 vols. London, 1913-1915: 1(1913):206.

1915: Bayley, Frank W. The Life and Works of John Singleton Copley. Boston, 1915: 253-254.

1924: Webster, J. Clarence. Sir Brook Watson, Friend of the Loyalists. Sackville, New Brunswick, 1924.

1937: Allan, George A. T. Christ's Hospital. London and Glasgow, 1937: 67-68.

1938: Cunningham, Charles C. "Introduction." John Singleton Copley, 1738-1815; Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Pastels, Miniatures and Drawings Exh. cat. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1938: 12-13.

1938: Wind, Edgar. "The Revolution in History Painting." Journal of the Warburg Institute 2 (1938/1939): 119.

1943: Mayor, A. Hyatt. "Early American Painters in England." Proceedings of the American Philosphical Society 87, no. 1 (July 1943): 107.

1943: Soby, James Thrall and Dorothy C. Miller. Romantic Painting in America. Exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1943: 9.

1946: American Painting from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day. Exh. cat. Tate Gallery, London, 1946: no. 49.

1947: Richardson, Edgar P. "Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley." Art Quarterly 10, no. 3 (Summer 1947): 213-218, fig. 3.

1951: The First Hundred Years of the Royal Academy, 1796-1868. Exh. cat. The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1951-1952: no. 420.

1953: The Christ's Hospital Book. London, 1953: repro. opp. 280.

1953: Waterhouse, Ellis. Painting in Britain, 1530 to 1790. Baltimore, Maryland, 1953: 160, 203, pl. 172.

1956: Richardson, Edgar P. Painting in America: The Story of 450 Years. New York, 1956: 94, 316.

1965: John Singleton Copley, Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1965-1966: no. 68a.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 2:396, color repro.

1966: Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966, pp. 267-274, 298, 387, 459-461, fig. 371, no. 1.

1968: Royal Academy of Arts Bicentenary Exhibition, 1768-1968. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1968-1969: no. 505.

1969: Novak, Barbara. American Painting of the Nineteenth Century: Realism, Idealism, and the American Experience. New York, 1979: 42-42, fig. 1.27. (3rd. ed. Oxford, 2007: 22-23, fig. 1.9.)

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 46, repro.

1974: Gerdts, William H. The Great American Nude: A History in Art. New York, 1974: detail repro. 33, 38.

1975: Paulson, Ronald. Emblem and Expression; Meaning in English Art of the Eighteenth Century. London, 1975: 202-203, repro.

1975: Stein, Roger B. Seascape and the American Imagination. New York, 1975: 18, 20, 112, color repro. opp. 32, pl. 1.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 392, color repro. 393.

1976: Stein, Roger B. "Copley's Watson and the Shark and Aesthetics in the 1770s." In Calvin Israel, ed., Discoveries and Considerations: Essays on Early American Letters & Aesthetics, Presented to Harold Jantz. Albany, 1976: x, 85-130; fig. 1, 4 on p. [88], [112].

1977: Jaffe, Irma B. "John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark." American Art Journal 9, no. 1 (May 1977): 15-25, repro.

1978: King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 74-75, pl. 44.

1979: Abrams, Ann Uhry. "Politics, Prints and John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark." Art Bulletin 61, no. 2 (June 1979): 265-276.

1979: Watson, Ross. The National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1979: 95, pl. 83.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 139, repro.

1980: Kemp, Martin. [Letter to the Editor]. ArtB 62, no. 4 (December 1980): 647.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Light: The Luminist Movement, 1850-1875, Paintings, Drawings, Photographs. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 48, color repro. 49.

1980: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1980: 10, 13, no. 5, color repro.

1981: Williams, William James. A Heritage of American Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1981: 30-31, repro. 32-33, color repro. 46.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 388, no. 552, color repro.

1986: Reader's Digest Services. Sharks: Silent Hunters of the Deep. Sydney and New York, 1986: 132-135.

1987: Wilmerding, John. American Marine Painting. Rev. ed. of A History of American Marine Painting, 1968. New York, 1987: 33-35, color repro. 32.

1988: Bilder aus der Neuen Welt, Amerikanische Malerei des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts, Exh. cat. Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Nationalgalerie, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin; Kunsthaus, Zürich, 1988-1989: no. 7.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 56, no. 5, color repro.

1989: Boime, Albert. "Blacks in Shark-Infested Waters; Visual Encodings of Racism in Copley and Homer." Smithsonian Studies in American Art (Winter 1989): 18-47, color repro. fig. 1.

1989: Honour, Hugh. The Image of the Black in Western Art. Vol. 4. From the American Revolution to World War I, Part I: Slaves and Liberators. Cambridge, Mass., 1989: 37-41, figs. 6-7.

1990: Boime, Albert. The Art of Exclusion; Representing Blacks in the Nineteenth Century. Washington, 1990: 20-36, color repro. after xvi.

1990: Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940. Exh. cat. The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; The Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1990: unnumbered.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 150, repro.

1992: Busch, Werner. "Copley, West, and the Tradition of European High Art." In American Icons; Transatlantic Perspectives on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Art. Edited by Thomas W. Gaehtgens and Heinz Ickstadt. Santa Monica, CA, 1992: 34-59.

1992: Gaehtgens, Thomas W. and Heinz Ickstadt, eds. American Icons, Transatlantic Perspectives on Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Art. Santa Monica, 1992: 35-59, repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 211, repro.

1993: Miles, Ellen G. "Copley's Watson and the Shark." Antiques 143, no. 1 (January 1993): 162-171, repro.

1995: John Singleton Copley in England. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 1995-1996: no. 4.

1995: Miles, Ellen G. American Paintings of the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 54-71, color repro. 57.

1995: Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. New York, 1995: 946, fig. 26-23.

1999: Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History. 2 vols. Revised ed. New York, 1999: 949, fig. 26-24.

1999: Zuffi, Stefano and Francesca Castria, La peinture baroque. Translated from Italian by Silvia Bonucci and Claude Sophie Mazéas. Paris, 1999: 390, color repro.

2000: Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 187, 190, fig. 200, 201.

2001: Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA II: Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. Chicago, 2001: 122-123, color repro.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 288-289, no. 233, color repro.

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

2011: Roberts, Jennifer L. "Failure to Deliver: Watson and the Shark and the Boston Tea Party." Art History" 10, no. 4 (September 2011): 625, 675-695, color fig. 2, 14.

2012: Brock, Charles. “George Bellows: An Unfinished Life.” In George Bellows ed. Charles Brock (Exh. cat. Washington 2012). Munich, 2012: 11.

2013: Neff, Emily Ballew and Kaylin H. Weber. "American Adversaries: Benjamin West & John Singleton Copley (Houston, Texas)." American Art Review 25, no. 6 (November-December 2013): 88, 91, color fig.

2016: Domínguez Torres, Mónica. "Havana’s Fortunes: ‘Entangled Histories’ in Copley’s Watson and the Shark." American Art 30, no. 2 (Summer 2016): 8-13, color repro.

2016: Rather, Susan. The American School: Artists and Status in the Late Colonial and Early National Era. New Haven, 2016: 17-19, 91, color fig. 10.

2024: Haw, Kate, Charles Brock, James Meyer, and Donna Kirk. "The Conversation Series. A Look Behind the Latest Installation.". Art for the Nation no. 68 (Spring 2024): 2-3, 6, 8, 11, 13, fig.1, fig. 4, fig. 7- 9.