Thomas Sully
Stephen Decatur
1814
Physical Qualities
Oil on canvas, Framed: 39 3/8 x 30 x 4 3/8 in. (100 x 76.2 x 11.1 cm) Sight: 32 1/4 x 23 in. (81.9 x 58.4 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of John D. Schapiro
Object Number
1976.83
The son of a Revolutionary privateer, Stephen Decatur (1779-1820) was a Maryland native who distinguished himself in the New Republic's fledgling Navy, having joined as a fifteen-year-old in 1798. Decatur stands in full dress uniform at the southern tip of Manhattan. Across the water, wreathed in smoke from firing artillery, we see Castle William, a defense constructed on Governor's Island during the War of 1812. Eventually, Decatur's sorties against the pirates of the North African Barbary States assured the safety of American ships in the Mediterranean sea. The feisty commodore was killed in a duel in 1820. A larger version of this portrait, commissioned by the city fathers of New York, hangs in New York City Hall.
George North Tatham, Philadelphia; to his nephew, Edwin Tatham; to his widow, Sara Potter Tatham; to her brother-in-law, Charles Tatham; C. W. Lyon, Inc., New York, 1940; Mr. and Mrs. Norvin H. Green; Green Sale, New York, 1950; Morris Schapiro, Baltimore; to his son, John Schapiro, Baltimore
Wendy A. Cooper. Classical Taste in America 1800-1840. Baltimore, MD: Baltimore Museum of Art; New York: Abbeville Press, 1993, page 243.
