The U.S. Battleship "Kearsarge" in Portsmouth Harbor

Date1903

Artist Henry Reuterdahl (American illustrator, 1871–1925)

Illustration CitationCollier's Weekly, July 25, 1903

MediumWatercolor, gouache, and graphite on illustration board

Dimensionssheet: 14 1/8 × 21 in. (35.9 × 53.3 cm)

Credit LineJohn Sloan Memorial Foundation, 1982

Object number1982-55

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsDRAWING

Label TextHenry Reuterdahl specialized in illustration of ships and the sea. He accompanied the American Fleet on voyages to South American and the Mediterranean. As artistic director of the U.S. Navy in World War One, he created numerous paintings for wartime posters.

The battleship Kearsarge was the flagship of the North Atlantic Fleet in the early years of the twentieth century, welcomed with celebrations at ports such as Portsmouth, England, and making calls at many Caribbean and European ports to impress viewers with the power of the U. S. Navy. The imposing ship serves as a backdrop for several implied human-interest plots in the foreground - the young seaman with his polished shoes, and the old one with his bottle, distracted dock workers, and recalcitrant chidlren. Areas of blue watercolor add depth to an otherwise almost monchrome scene.