Detail of the Battle of the USS Kearsarge and the CSS Alabama by Manet in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 2023

Title: The Battle of the USS "Kearsarge" and the CSS "Alabama"

Artist: Edouard Manet (French, Paris 1832–1883 Paris)

Date: 1864

Geography: Country of Origin France

Culture: French

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 54 1/4 × 50 3/4 in. (137.8 × 128.9 cm)
Framed: 68 7/8 × 65 5/8 × 4 3/4 in., 225 lb. (174.9 × 166.7 × 12.1 cm, 102.1 kg)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Philadelphia Museum of Art: The John G. Johnson Collection, 1917 (Cat. 1027)


This dramatic painting captures an important naval victory of the American Civil War fought off the coast of France, near Cherbourg, on June 19, 1864. The sinking Confederate boat, the CSS Alabama, has taken a direct hit to her engines from the Union’s USS Kearsarge, whose raised American flag flies against the clouds of dark smoke billowing from the wreckage. Manet’s sympathy for the Union and his young interest in joining the navy may have inspired this canvas, his first known seascape and first painting of a current event. This picture was initially displayed in the window of Alfred Cadart's print shop in Paris barely a month after the incident took place.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/844736