The Kearsarge at Boulogne (Fishing boat coming in before the wind)

Edouard Manet

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Keywords: KearsargeBoulogneFishingboatcomingwind

Work Overview

The Kearsarge at Boulogne (Fishing boat coming in before the wind)
Le Kearsarge à Boulogne
Artist Édouard Manet
Year 1864
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions 81.6 cm × 100 cm (32.1 in × 39 in)
Style   Realism
Genre   marina
Location Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York


The Kearsarge at Boulogne is an oil-on-canvas painting by Édouard Manet completed in 1864. It depicts the Union cruiser USS Kearsarge, victor of the Battle of Cherbourg over the rebel privateer CSS Alabama. The painting is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


Although he had not witnessed the battle, Manet visited Cherbourg one month after and painted a watercolour portrait of Kearsarge, now exhibited in Dijon. The oil painting was probably based on this watercolour.[1]


Manet later painted an account of the battle itself, The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama.


During the American Civil War, the United States warship Kearsarge made headlines after sinking the Confederate raider Alabama off the coast of France. Manet did not witness firsthand the widely-covered event but devoted two paintings to the subject: a scene of the naval battle (Philadelphia Museum of Art) and this picture, prompted by his subsequent visit to the victorious ship at anchor near Boulogne. They were his first depictions of a current event.