Painting History with Artist Patrick 0 'Brien "Paint what you see." This is comm on advice fo r artists; however, as a painter of maritime history, I don't have that option. The Age of Sail has lo ng passed, and the great seaports have been transformed. W hen beginning a new painting of a maritime scene from history, the fi rs t step is the research. I study old ships' logs, captains' letters, and first-person narratives. I consult sailing m anuals, shipbuilders' drafts, and old sail plans. Contemporary paintings from the eighteenth- and nineteenth centuries, completed when the artist had the advantage of actually seeing his subj ects before him, can be an invaluable reso urce, though sometimes these depictions prove inaccurate and must be used judicio usly. I study every resource available so that my depiction of a vessel or an event can be as accurate as it is possible to be. When I paint, I have two audiences in m ind: those who do n't know o r care about the specifics but simply want to see an aes thetically pleasing painting of ships at sea, and the m aritime history buff who will scru ti nize every detail, searching fo r historical or nautical errors. The challenge is to m eld these goals and create a painting that is not only historically accurate, but also pleasing to the eye. With the bicentennial years of the War of 18 12 now upon us, I am worki ng my way th ro ugh all of the sea battles of that "second war of independence." I have painted the great fri gate duels m any times, but I find that the lesser-know n battles of the brigs and schooners have been largely neglected in maritime art. I hope to remedy this defici t, and create definitively accurate portrayals of these classic battles of the age of fighti ng sail. I'll start with a case study of how I created my most popular battle scene and then describe briefly a few of my other paintings.
The Battle of the Chesapeake Bay The Battle of the Chesapeake Bay was a turning point in the American Revolution: the Royal Navy's loss of this battle in the fall of 1781 ultimately allowed General George Washington to defeat the British at Yorktown a few weeks later, thereby ending the war. The battle was waged just outside the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay on 5 September 1781 between the British and French fleets. Neither fleet was decisively defeated, but the French wo n the day by denying the British entrance into the Bay. This preven ted the British from resupplying their troops and allowed reinfo rcement of Washington's army. As a result, the British were forced to surrender to General Washingto n on 19 O ctober. 28
In 2008 I was commissioned to do a large painting of this battle. I began by consulting charts and acco unts of the actio n, plus the adm irals' jo urnals fro m both fleets. From these, I determined the placem ent of the vessels relative to one ano ther, as well as the ti me of day, direction of the sun, and wind condi tio ns. For the depiction of the ships themselves (43 ships engaged in the battle-24 British and 19 French), I studied manuals of building, rigging, and handling of eighteen th-century sailing shi ps. I also examined and photographed dockyard models at the US Naval Academy Museum . These builders' m odels we re made at the sam e time and in th e sam e shipyards as the actual ships. SEA HISTORY 138, SPRING 201 2