We look across and down at a channel of water separating two landmasses labeled "Boston" and "Charles Town" in this horizontal landscape painting. Four three-masted ships are in the aquamarine-blue harbor between us and the land. Three of them have their sails unfurled and smoke billows from the broad, starboard side of each. Tidy rows of brown houses line the area of Boston. A puff of white smoke rises from the farthest point. Two arrow-shaped missiles, perhaps projectiles on fire, arc toward Charles Town, where billowing gray plumes of smoke rise from vivid orange fire on the far side of the landmass. Rowboats bring soldiers to the shore of Charles Town, close to where hundreds of soldiers line up and fire at each other. Much of the rest of Charles Town is a hill leading to sheer cliffs to our right. Tan and gray-colored smoke mixes among bright white clouds against a pale blue sky on the top half of the painting.
Read the visual description

We look across and down at a channel of water separating two landmasses labeled "Boston" and "Charles Town" in this horizontal landscape painting. Four three-masted ships are in the aquamarine-blue harbor between us and the land. Three of them have their sails unfurled and smoke billows from the broad, starboard side of each. Tidy rows of brown houses line the area of Boston. A puff of white smoke rises from the farthest point. Two arrow-shaped missiles, perhaps projectiles on fire, arc toward Charles Town, where billowing gray plumes of smoke rise from vivid orange fire on the far side of the landmass. Rowboats bring soldiers to the shore of Charles Town, close to where hundreds of soldiers line up and fire at each other. Much of the rest of Charles Town is a hill leading to sheer cliffs to our right. Tan and gray-colored smoke mixes among bright white clouds against a pale blue sky on the top half of the painting.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Attack on Bunker's Hill, with the Burning of Charles Town

American 18th Century

Date
1783 or after
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 53.3 x 70.8 cm (21 x 27 7/8 in.) framed: 60.3 x 77.4 x 3.8 cm (23 3/4 x 30 1/2 x 1 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1953.5.86
Credit line
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Time span
1776 to 1800
Department
CAB

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • American
  • United States
  • military
  • Naval Battle
  • Boston
  • American Naive Paintings
  • Naive
  • Charlestown
Provenance

Recorded as from New York. (Harry Stone Gallery, New York, by 1943),[1] by whom sold in 1949 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1953. [1] In this year Stone lent the painting to exhibitions at the Lyman Allyn Museum in New London, Connecticut, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Inscription

center left: BOSTON; upper right: CHARLES TOWN

NGA object ID 42489. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.