The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama

The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama
Artist Édouard Manet
Year 1864
Type Oil on canvas
Dimensions 134 cm × 127 cm (53 in × 50 in)
Location Museum of Art, Philadelphia

The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama is a 1864 painting by Édouard Manet. The painting commemorates the Battle of Cherbourg of 1864, a naval engagement between the Union cruiser USS Kearsarge and the rebel privateer CSS Alabama. Not having witnessed the battle himself, Manet relied on press descriptions of the fight to document his work.[1]

In 1872, Barbey d'Aurevilly stated that the painting was a "magnificiant marine painting" and that "the sea (...) is more frightening than the battle".[2] It was hung at Alfred Cadart's and was praised by the critic Philippe Burty[3]

The painting is on display in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

References

  1. Barbey d'Aurevilly, "Salon", Le Gaulois, 3 juillet 1872. Extraits: chap. LXIII, p. 334-337 Le Gaulois, 3 juillet 1872
  2. Françoise Cachin, Charles S. Moffett et Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Manet 1832-1883, Paris, Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1983, 544 p. (ISBN 2711802302), p 219