Watson and the Shark

This dramatic scene captures a real event that happened in Havana harbor in 1749. A fourteen-year-old boy named Brook Watson was swimming alone when a shark attacked him, and the painting freezes the terrifying moment as his shipmates rush to save him. Watson actually survived, though he lost part of his leg, and he later became a successful merchant and even Lord Mayor of London. It was Watson himself who commissioned John Singleton Copley to paint this scene, perhaps as a reminder of how close he came to death and how far he had risen afterward.

Copley was an American painter working in London, and here he shows off his talent for drama and emotion. Notice how your eye gets pulled across the painting, from the pale, vulnerable boy in the water to the shark with its gaping mouth, then up to the men straining to pull him aboard. The painting caused a real stir when it was first shown because most serious artworks back then focused on grand historical or religious subjects, not the survival story of an ordinary boy. By giving this everyday drama the scale and seriousness usually reserved for famous heroes, Copley helped open the door for a new kind of storytelling in art.

One small detail worth a look: Copley had never actually seen a shark, so the creature he painted looks a little odd, with strange lips and front-facing nostrils. It adds an almost dreamlike, monstrous quality to an already tense moment.