Study for "The Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar"

1783-1786

John Singleton Copley

Associated Names
John Singleton Copley

Artist, American, 1738 - 1815

The image shows a composition of curved lines converging to form an abstract representation. In the center, there are figures interwoven in fluid movements. The arrangement of forms resembles a wave or a group of bodies moving upwards. The figures are elongated and expressive, conveying tension and motion evocative of struggle or ascension.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

the artist, London, England; Lord Lyndhurst (John Singelton Copley, Jr.), London, England, 1815; (Lyndhurst Library Sale, Christie's, London, England, 1864); Edward Basil Jupp, London, England; Amory Family, Boston, Massachusetts; (Childs Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts); Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1956; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art

Associated Names

Bibliography

1966

  • Prown, Jules David. John Singleton Copley, vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966, p. 449, fig. 517 (as "Study for Figures Clinging to Wreckage").

1983

  • Simmons, Linda Crocker and with the assistance of Adrianne J. Humphrey, et al. American Drawings, Watercolors, Pastels, and Collages in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, DC: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1983: p. 1, no. 3.

Inscriptions

upper right corner in graphite by unknown hand: 11; lower left corner in graphite by unknown hand: 4; lower left verso in graphite by unknown hand; 8791 No. 11 $100-

Watermarks

CP TCH

Wikidata ID

Q64584140

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