The United States won a marine battle on this day during the War of 1812.In 1852, forty years after the historic confrontation, artist Thomas Chambers effectively conveyed the spirited skirmish.
Ship Ahoy!
The United States won a marine battle on this day during the War of 1812.In 1852, forty years after the historic confrontation, artist Thomas Chambers effectively conveyed the spirited skirmish.
The drama and motion of this image emphatically convey the noise and turmoil of a battle at sea. The painting commemorates an event during the War of 1812 in which Stephen Decatur commanded an American ship that captured a British frigate.…
Based on earlier depictions of the skirmish, the scene has an immediacy—with the punctured sails, billowing smoke, and American flag whipping in the wind—that makes it a stirring statement of American patriotism.
This painting and fifty others tell our young nation's story in our traveling exhibition Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, now on view at the Columbus Museum in Georgia.
Source: Amy Pastan. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (New York and Washington, D.C.: Watson-Guptill Publications, in cooperation with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2000).
Pictured: Thomas Chambers, 1808 England–1879 USA, Capture of H.B.M. Frigate Macedonian by U.S. Frigate United States, October 25, 1812, 1852, oil, 34 3/4 x 50 1/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sheldon and Caroline Keck in honor of Elizabeth Broun.