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Frigates Towing a Hulk
Frigates Towing a Hulk

Frigates Towing a Hulk

Thomas Rowlandson (English, 1756–1827)
1812
Medium/TechniquePen, and ink and watercolor over graphite (recto); graphite (verso)
DimensionsSheet: 28.5 x 21.9 cm (11 1/4 x 8 5/8 in. )
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. John Dolliver MacDonald
Accession number50.3987
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsWatercolors
Description

Maritime metaphors were in wide use in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain. A frigate is a quick and lively warship, nimble and highly maneuverable—very useful in battle; a hulk is an old, tired, and leaky, ship, no longer able to move under its own power.

InscriptionsLL in ink: RowlandSon 1812; LC: titleProvenanceColl.: Sir John Crampton, Wicklow, Ireland; Mrs. Boyle, London; Gift to MFA of Mr. and Mrs. John D. MacDonald, Cambridge, MA; December 14, 1950