The Crossing of the Delaware and Walter and the Shark

Aaron Staples
Art History 203 George W. Born November 16th, 2014

I have chosen The Passage of the Delaware, c.1819 by Thomas Sully, Oil on canvas and Watson and the Shark, c.1778 by John Singleton Copley, Oil on canvas. Both are historic paintings, but not of the same theme. The subjects may be different, but the use of color is similar. One was painted during the middle of the revolutionary war and the other painted an important moment of the revolutionary war! One is in London while the other is in Philadelphia. Both are paintings, oil on canvas. When you put them side by side one may ask why one would choose to compare these two. I believe that both have similar styles in the way that they are painted as well as the history behind them.
The Passage of the Delaware was commissioned by the state of North Carolina for the senate hall of the state house in Raleigh. This was a history painting showing that of George Washington crossing the frozen Delaware River to surprise the English forces. The battle was known as the battle of Trenton and was one of the most important victories for the revolutionary forces. Watson and the Shark on the other hand was not a commissioned painting, but one he did of his own free will and dramatized the story of the boy who almost got eaten by a shark and in the end he just lost his leg. This painting was a grand success for him and got him full access to the Royal Academy. Both of these were history paintings thus meaning it depicts a certain point in history, usually it is of the Bible or mythology or that of military victories. The Passage of the Delaware is depicting a military triumph, but Walter and the Shark depict something new which was a moment of salvation where there was no single hero, but heroism at its finest.
Both artists were from neighboring states and two of the few important ones during the time period. Sully was in Philadelphia and Copley left Boston to paint in London. That is the difference in location, but the difference in style is due to who they were inspired by. Thomas Sully was the leading portrait painter in Philadelphia for about a quarter of a century. He studied with a series of miniature painters, his brother and travelled quite a bit to meet certain artists especially that of the portrait artist, Gilbert Stuart in Boston. The most important person he studied with though was when he travelled to London and that was where he studied with Benjamin West. Benjamin West painted The Death of General Wolfe c.1771 and the one Sully Painted of George Washington has an almost perfect copy of West’s style. The way it is painted are similar in the way that it moves your eye around the piece to the central focal point of the piece, but both also use color to show the emotion and the raw power of the emotions at the time. During this time Copley left Boston and travelled to Europe, this was because he wanted to study renaissance and baroque paintings. Once he got there he wanted to attempt more complex pieces and drew upon old-master paintings. A big difference between these two was that The Passage of the Delaware was too big for where it was supposed to be located, meanwhile Walter and the Shark was made into prints for those who wanted it for themselves! Walter and the Shark may have been more popular and easier to reproduce because The Passage of the Delaware was over 10 feet by 10 feet! The senate had no hall capable of holding such a large painting, but this was also due to Thomas Sully starting the painting before he got the dimensions by the state.
The Passage of the Delaware has a fantasized sense of light. In a full on snow storm in the depths of the night there would be no possible way to see them clearly as well as everyone not having the slightest bit of snow on them. In that sense this is a dramatized piece of history, but it does boost morale of anyone who sees it as well as producing a sense of pride in one’s country. Watson and the Shark has a theme of salvation where the lighting is played up ever so slightly in the center circle. One would not notice it, unless seen in person but the lighting is close to that of impressionists and it is close to what actual light would look like at the time this was supposedly happening! It also has a slight sense of fantasy due to Watson and the shark being painted in a different style than the other characters in the painting. This will draw your attention to those two even if you don’t realize it at first.
Both The Passage of the Delaware by Thomas Sully and Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley have similar forms and style. Although Copley’s piece has a central focal point and Sully’s has the bottom right as a focal point the grand size of both of these paintings make both seem just as powerful and moving as the other. If you make size comparisons and rate them on which one had the greater impact on history, one could argue easily that the military victory for America was of far greater import than that of saving one boys life who just happened to fall into the water when a shark was nearby. One may be about one of the most important battles in American history, but the other is one of a local story in Havana Harbor of a young boy being attacked by a shark and saved. Watson and the Shark is a simple metaphor for America at the time. America was the boy and Europe was the Shark, but in the end the boy and America survived and thrived!

Works Cited
"Art of the Americas." Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.

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[ 1 ]. "Art of the Americas." Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
[ 2 ]. "Art of the Americas." Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.
[ 3 ]. "Art of the Americas." Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2014.