John Singleton Copley's painting titled Watson and the Shark dramatizes a horrific event that occurred in 1749 in which fourteen-year-old Brook Watson was brutally attacked by a shark in Havana Port. Shortly after the attack, Watson was rescued from the water by his shipmates. The crew of a small boat, which was waiting to escort the captain to shore, fought off the shark and saved Watson. Unfortunately, Watson lost his leg (below the knee) due to the accident. He went on to live a full life and never forgot that day. In 1778 he commissioned John Singleton Copley to paint a painting about this life-changing event. I believe that John Singleton Copley placed pictorial limitations on his historical painting of Watson and Jaws due to political and personal implications at the time the painting was completed. John Singleton Copley was born in 1738 in Boston, Massachusetts. His mother Martha Babcock Amory was married to Richard Copley who died shortly after John's birth. A couple of years later his mother remarried Peter Pelham. Peter would prove to be a major influence on John's early career. Pelham, one of Boston's best printmakers, would teach him the intricacies of printmaking and give Copley access to a vast library of prints to work from. These would later be used in the compositions of paintings such as The Return of Neptune (fig1.1) and Mrs. Jerathmael Bowers. At first he borrowed poses and backgrounds from his stepfather's mezzotints, and color and modeling tricks from his elders in the Boston portrait fraternity. But he soon discovered that he could go further by paying little attention to fashions and rigorous attention to his models. He would spend up to 100 hours on a portrait with… half a sheet of paper… lying terrified and helpless in the water he turns to his shipmates to save him. It shows the struggle in life for a cause. One side wants to save him (shipmates) while the other side wants him to die (shark). This parable is a message to the triumphant colonists who fought for freedom and independence in America. It can be linked to the Tea Party, when the colonists stood together against the oppression of Parliament and won. Works Cited{1} Roberts, J.L. (2011). Failure to Deliver: Watson and Jaws and the Boston Tea Party. Art History, 34(4), 674-695. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8365.2010.00841.x{2} http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watson_and_the_Shark#cite_ref-0{3} Abrams, Ann Uhry. 1979. "Politics, Prints, and John Singleton Copley's Watson and the Shark." Art Bulletin 61, n. 2: 265. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 12, 2012).