The Kearsarge at Boulogne

On the 19th of June 1864 an American warship, the Kearsarge, sank the Confederate raider Alabama off Cherbourg, a battle from the distant American Civil War fought within sight of the French coast. Crowds rowed out to watch. Manet had already painted the battle itself, which he never witnessed. Weeks later, when the Kearsarge anchored off the resort town of Boulogne, he came to study the real ship, probably going aboard around the 10th of July to get its profile right. It mattered to him that summer: the Salon had just mocked his paintings, and getting every detail true was part of how he meant to answer. He builds the picture in flat horizontal bands of sea and sky, the dark hull low and surprisingly small, a fishing boat cutting across the foreground.