A shark swims with Brook Watson in Havana harbour

Date

1778

Description

Creator of the image: John Singleton Copley
Date of the image creation: 1778
Medium: Oil on canvas
Person depicted: Brook Watson

In 1749 a 14-year-old English boy named Brook Watson was swimming alone in Havana harbour (alone in the sense he was not accompanied by another human). A shark attacked him. The first time the beast attacked, it bit off the flesh from the boy's right calf. It circled about and attacked again, biting off his right foot at the ankle. His shipmates then rescued Brook before the shark could attack again. He had to have his mutilated leg amputated below the knee and spent several months recovering in a Cuban hospital. Afterwards, Brook Watson continued to work as a merchant sailor, then, following a stint in the navy, he became an increasingly important businessman. Later he would serve as the lord mayor of London and the director of the Bank of England.

In 1774, Watson met the American painter John Singleton Copley (1738-1815) who he commissioned to paint an epic image of how he lost his leg in Cuba. Copley completed three versions of this large-scale historical scene, which makes reference to a number of Renaissance artworks. The image shown here is cropped from the larger, highly romanticized image. Watson’s half-eaten right leg disappears beneath the waves, concealing the gore of the attack. He extends his hand towards a harpoon-wielding sailor who plunges his weapon heroically towards the shark.

It is highly likely that Copley had never seen a shark. He was dependent for his imagination on existing prints and illustrations. This failed to translate into a realistic rendering, with his shark featuring nostrils, lips, and yellow, forward-facing cat-like eyes. Nevertheless, the beast is surely frightening, and the hopeless horror of the event is well captured in this image of predation.

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