Audio Stop 408

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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

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Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley, painted in 1778. Oil on canvas. The painted surface is about 6 feet high by 7 and a half feet wide.

This description is about 3 minutes long.

Amid choppy waves, a naked young man thrashes on his back in the water. From the right, an oversized shark approaches with his teeth-lined jaws open wide. Behind this pair, a boat full of men row, reach out towards the man in the water, or prepare to attack the shark. Moored ships and distant buildings line a harbor in the background.

Let’s focus first on the action in the foreground.

The pale body of the young white man, Watson, is borne up by the water near the lower left corner of the painting. With his feet to our left, he throws his head backwards to our right, so we see him in profile. His eyes roll up and back under raised brows. His long hair disappears into the greenish, turbulent water. His right arm – farther from us – reaches up. His near, left leg lifts towards the surface of the water, while his right leg is submerged from the knee down, lost in a pool of dark red.

Moving to the right, the shark’s enormous mouth is just inches away from Watson’s head. The shark has a squarish jaw and curiously projecting snout. Its body curves back under the water, and a triangular fin appears farther back past the boat, at the right.

The wooden rowboat nearly spans the center of the composition. It’s crowded with 8 white men and 1 Black man. Four of the men row or steady the boat with the oars. Two more lean out of the boat, reaching for Watson; a third man steadies one of the pair. The Black man stands at the top center of the composition, holding the other end of a rope that wraps loosely around Watson’s arm. The ninth man props one foot on the edge of the boat to our right as he prepares to thrust a harpoon down towards the shark. Some of the men look on with their mouths open or brows furrowed. Most wear loose white or gray shirts and a few have scarves tied around their necks.

The horizon comes about two-thirds of the way up the composition and is lined to either side with buildings and boats. A gap in the harbor beyond the harpoonist leads to the open ocean. A screen of parchment-white clouds sweeps up from the horizon against an ice-blue sky. Darker gray clouds form near the upper left corner.

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