Watson and the Shark
John Singleton Copley · 1778
The story
Watson and the Shark is an oil painting by the Anglo-American painter John Singleton Copley, depicting the rescue of the English boy Brook Watson from a shark attack in Havana, Cuba.
Copley, then living in London, painted three versions, which are all now in the United States. The 1778 version is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. A second, full-size 1778 replica is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a third, smaller, 1782 version with a more vertical composition is in the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The paintings are based on an attack that took place in Havana Harbor in 1749. Brook Watson, then a 14-year-old cabin boy on the Royal Consort, lost his right leg below the knee in the attack, and was not rescued until the third attempt, which is the subject of the painting. Watson, having had a military career and become a successful merchant, commissioned the painting from Copley twenty-five years after the event. Watson went on to be chairman of Lloyd's of London, a Member of Parliament, and Lord Mayor of London.
- Artist
- John Singleton Copley
- Date
- 1778
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States
- Movement
- Pre-romanticism
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Size
- 228.6 × 177.8 cm
Story adapted from the Wikipedia article and its contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Explore paintings by John Singleton Copley
Explore related paintings
- A Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honoré Fragonard
- Adoration of the Magi (Fra Angelico and Filippo Lippi) by Fra Angelico
- Adoration of the Shepherds (Giorgione) by Giorgione
- Alba Madonna by Raphael
- Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci
- Laocoön (El Greco) by El Greco
Guess famous paintings in the free daily art puzzle →
Enable JavaScript to play the interactive puzzle. Your progress stays on this device.