The Battle of La Hogue
by WEST, Benjamin, Oil on canvas, 164 x 244 cm
The painting represents the Battle of La Hogue, a crucial naval skirmish of the War of the Grand Alliance in which English and Dutch fleets successfully defeated a large French invasion in May of 1692.
The painting is signed and dated on the stern of Admiral Rooke’s boat: B. West 1778. Retouched 1806. The preliminary work was started by West as early as 1778, then West had given his student John Trumbull, a fellow American who had re-entered his studio in January 1784 the task of completing most of the work. Finally, the painting was finished by West himself in 1806.