Watson and the Shark, 1778

Oil on canvas; 182.1 x 229.7 cm (71 11/16 x 90 7/16 in). National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

One of three versions: the second is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; a third, dated 1782, is in the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Loyalism was a siren call for the British. They were constantly bending their strategy to conform to the chimera of Loyalist support that was assumed to be there but somehow never materialized. Howe’s Philadelphia campaign and Burgoyne’s invasion from Canada, as well as the British strategy in the South, were based on the assumption that large numbers of Loyalists would rise in support, if only sufficiently encouraged and protected ...

— Michael Stephenson

Patriot Battles: How the War of Independence Was Fought (2007)