"The Moment of Defiance: The pursuit of USS Constitution by a British squadron, 17-19 July 1812"

Oil on Linen Canvas

26 x 40 inches (66 x 101.5 cm)

Signed, lower left

Commissioned by a USA Private Collection

This exceptional, large painting was commissioned by an American client in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who wanted a depiction of the famous escape in 1812 by Constitution from a much superior British force near New York.

The client did not want a scene that showed ships of either side in the War of 1812 overtly triumphant. After viewing pencil sketches by Geoff Hunt of different scenes, this moment was chosen, around 7.30 a.m. on the 17^th of July, when Constitution hoisted her colours and fired a gun. Geoff Hunt entitled it the “moment of defiance” and the painting shows the crews of all the ships carrying out the back-breaking work of kedge anchors and warps.

Geoff read all three of the known British log books during research for this painting, those of Shannon, Belvidera and Aeolus and discovered that Belvidera, not Shannon, got closest to Constitution during the pursuit. Belvidera is seen here on the extreme right and the other ships in the British squadron were Africa and Guerriere.

The artist pointed out that, although the ships appear well spread out, Constitution was in great danger during this pursuit from any sailing mistake, gear failure or a breeze bringing up one or more British ships before Constitution could benefit from the wind. Equally, Constitution might have rounded on and defeated Belvidera before the other British could come up and so this was a lengthy period of tension, for all of which the crews of every ship put in the massive continual physical effort of kedging and warping.

COMMISSIONING GEOFF HUNT

At Marine Artists one of our main specialities is commissioning great marine and historical paintings forclients and collectorsall over the world

To commission your own painting from Geoff Hunt, contact Charles Mayes cm@marineartists.co.ukand we will post or email you a free pack of information including our short guides "Commissioning a Painting from Geoff Hunt" and "Price Guide and Timescale"

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