I spent the Thanksgiving holiday in Boston and enjoyed a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA)... Among the many terrific paintings in their collection are two by Thomas Birch - Constitution vs Guerriere and United States vs Macedonian.
Blurb from the MFA site:
Thomas Birch was America's first marine painter and thus the founder of a long and great tradition in this country. He studied under his father, William, a painter and engraver, and in 1794 the two emigrated from England to Philadelphia. The War of 1812 inspired the younger Birch to produce a series of over a dozen naval pictures based on actual battles, each executed within months of the event-exemplars of the type of contemporary history painting initiated by Benjamin West. The unexpected American victories in the war against Great Britain-the first test of the nation as a military force-were a source of great pride to its citizens and provided a worthy subject for history painters to promote the new republic. Birch's compositions were as accurate as he could make them. He carefully rendered the ships' portraits and also included details of the fighting gleaned from interviews with participating crewmembers. His paintings were acclaimed not only for their sense of immediacy, but also for their appeal to the patriotic fervor of the young country.
The Constitution vs Guerriere painting shows the ships pulling apart just after Guerriere lost her masts and includes many accurate details from the official accounts - the gaff is broken, the starboard cro'jack is missing, the royal yards have been sent down, and the main topgallant is set. Here again, we see a contemporary painting with the gun stripe painted yellow ochre and no gun port lids.
http://educators.mfa.org/objects/detail/114851?related_people_text=Thomas+Birch
His depiction of the United States vs Macedonian fight is extremely interesting... The paint scheme on USS United States is so unusual that it seems likely to be accurate - can't imagine a painter just making that up. The keen modeler will focus in on the stern to try and gain clues on how the roundhouse was handled... It looks like a very low railing and the quarter galleries are NOT stacked as done in the horrible Revell 1/96 version.
Very impressive works when viewed in person - incredible detail and brush work. Nice to see that they sit in a very visible location too - in the same gallery as the famous Stuart and Copley paintings of Washington.