Attack on Bunker's Hill, with the Burning of Charles Town

American 18th Century

National Gallery of Art

We look across and down at a channel of water separating two landmasses labeled "Boston" and "Charles Town" in this horizontal landscape painting. Four three-masted ships are in the aquamarine-blue harbor between us and the land. Three of them have their sails unfurled and smoke billows from the broad, starboard side of each. Tidy rows of brown houses line the area of Boston. A puff of white smoke rises from the farthest point. Two arrow-shaped missiles, perhaps projectiles on fire, arc toward Charles Town, where billowing gray plumes of smoke rise from vivid orange fire on the far side of the landmass. Rowboats bring soldiers to the shore of Charles Town, close to where hundreds of soldiers line up and fire at each other. Much of the rest of Charles Town is a hill leading to sheer cliffs to our right. Tan and gray-colored smoke mixes among bright white clouds against a pale blue sky on the top half of the painting.