The fire on the Wharves of Algiers

Painted by Dutch artist Nicolaas Baur in 1818, this fiery night scene shows the bombardment of Algiers, a battle that had taken place only two years earlier. A combined British and Dutch fleet had sailed against the city to put an end to the enslavement of Europeans along the North African coast. Baur places a massive warship at the right of the canvas, its sails rolled up and flags snapping in the air, while below it small rowboats crowded with sailors drift across water that glows with reflected flame. Orange and gold light spills through thick smoke, giving the battle an almost dreamlike glow despite its brutal reality.

Baur made his name with marine paintings, part of a long Dutch tradition rooted in a nation shaped by ships and the sea. His careful hand shows in the tangle of rigging, the shimmer on the waves, and the way smoke curls around the distant fleet. The result is two things at once: a faithful record of a real event and a piece of pure drama that plays up the danger of war on the water. Beneath all that beauty sits a violent chapter of history, one that left its mark on how Europe and the Mediterranean world dealt with each other for years to come.