Copley chose to depict the moment of highest dramatic intensity -- the
instant just prior to the third, presumably fatal, attack. Viewers had
no way of knowing that the lad would be plucked from the jaws of death
by his stalwart companions.
John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, 1778. National Gallery of Art, Ferdinand Lammot Belin Fund 1963.6.1
