In 1749 a 14-year-old orphan named Brook Watson was swimming in Havana harbor when a shark attacked him, taking his right leg below the knee. His shipmates pulled him out at the last moment. Watson later became Lord Mayor of London and commissioned this painting.

John Singleton Copley, an American working in London, made a news event into a grand history painting. Look at the man in the boat holding out a rope, the shark’s open jaws, and Watson’s pale body in the green water.