Copley Watson and the Shark
Artist: John Singleton Copley (American b. 1738 d. 1815)
Date: 1778
Dimensions: 7’6” x 6’
Medium: oil on canvas
Current location: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Period: Romanticism
Genre: history painting

Quick Notes:
  • Brook Watson commissioned Copley to depict a scene from his own life. He was nearly
    killed by a shark in Havana Harbor as a young man.
  • The whiteness of Watson’s skin contrasts symbolically with the darkness of the shark.
  • Copley was among the earliest artists to depict uniquely American history in paint after
    Benjamin West. However, Copley was a British loyalist and he moved to London shortly
    before the American War of Independence.
  • Copley modeled the pose for the man with the harpoon at the prow of the boat on
    traditional paintings of the Archangel Michael and St. George.

Suggested Compare-Contrast Target:
  • Theodore Gericault, The Raft of the “Medusa”
  • Winslow Homer, The Gulfstream

Writing Prompts:
  • How does this painting represent a uniquely American historical scene? In what ways
    does it borrow from the European tradition?
  • What symbolism does Copley employ in this composition?
  • What elements of this painting are Baroque, what elements are Neoclassical, and what
    elements are Romantic?

Back to Main Page