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The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama

The Battle of the Kearsarge and the Alabama is an 1864 oil painting by Édouard Manet. The painting commemorates the Battle of Cherbourg of 1864, a naval engagement of the American Civil War between the Union cruiser USS Kearsarge and the Confederate raider CSS Alabama. Many spectators were able to see the battle from the coast of France and saw the USS Kearsarge sink the CSS Alabama. Not having witnessed the battle himself, Manet relied on press descriptions of the battle to document his work. Within one month of this battle, Manet had already completed this painting and got it on display in the print shop of Alfred Cadart in Paris.

In 1872, Barbey d'Aurevilly stated that the painting was a "m...

1864
Oil on canvas
1379.0 x 1290.1mm
Q154653
Image and text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023