Watson and the Shark by John Singleton Copley, painted in 1778. Oil on canvas. The painted surface is about 6 feet high by 7 and a half feet wide.
This description is about 3 minutes long.
Amid choppy waves, a naked young man thrashes on his back in the water. From the right, an oversized shark approaches with his teeth-lined jaws open wide. Behind this pair, a boat full of men row, reach out towards the man in the water, or prepare to attack the shark. Moored ships and distant buildings line a harbor in the background.
Let’s focus first on the action in the foreground.
The pale body of the young white man, Watson, is borne up by the water near the lower left corner of the painting. With his feet to our left, he throws his head backwards to our right, so we see him in profile. His eyes roll up and back under raised brows. His long hair disappears into the greenish, turbulent water. His right arm – farther from us – reaches up. His near, left leg lifts towards the surface of the water, while his right leg is submerged from the knee down, lost in a pool of dark red.
Moving to the right, the shark’s enormous mouth is just inches away from Watson’s head. The shark has a squarish jaw and curiously projecting snout. Its body curves back under the water, and a triangular fin appears farther back past the boat, at the right.
The wooden rowboat nearly spans the center of the composition. It’s crowded with 8 white men and 1 Black man. Four of the men row or steady the boat with the oars. Two more lean out of the boat, reaching for Watson; a third man steadies one of the pair. The Black man stands at the top center of the composition, holding the other end of a rope that wraps loosely around Watson’s arm. The ninth man props one foot on the edge of the boat to our right as he prepares to thrust a harpoon down towards the shark. Some of the men look on with their mouths open or brows furrowed. Most wear loose white or gray shirts and a few have scarves tied around their necks.
The horizon comes about two-thirds of the way up the composition and is lined to either side with buildings and boats. A gap in the harbor beyond the harpoonist leads to the open ocean. A screen of parchment-white clouds sweeps up from the horizon against an ice-blue sky. Darker gray clouds form near the upper left corner.
