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Watson and the Shark

History, Religious and Mythological Paintings

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 made multiple painted and etched versions of the composition, and the work is regarded as one of his most dramatic history paintings.

Facts
Year Created
1778 1
Copley painted three versions; the 1778 original is the version referenced here. A second 1778 replica is in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a third, 1782, version is in the Detroit Institute of Arts, per the same source.
Medium
Oil on canvas 1
Location
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. 1
Commissioned By
Brook Watson 1
Classification
Genre
Painting 1
Medium
Medium (category)
Oil on Canvas 1
Connections

Created By

John Singleton Copley, Artists
Source Watson and the Shark (Wikipedia)

In Form

Painting, Art Forms

1778 painting by John Singleton Copley.

In Genre

Painting, Art Forms
In the Other Atlases

Located In

United States

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is located.

Source Wikipediatier 2
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
Watson and the Shark (Wikipedia)
  • Watson and the Shark article, opening sentence
    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.
  • Watson and the Shark article, sentence on the 1778 version and its location
    The 1778 version is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Watson and the Shark article, sentence on commissioning
    Watson, having had a military career and become a successful merchant, commissioned the painting from Copley twenty-five years after the event.
  • Lead section
    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.
  • Created By: John Singleton Copley, Wikipedia intro
    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.
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