Manet was not the only artist (although he was the only impressionist) to depict the unique but significant American naval engagement off Cherbourg. Henri Durand-Brager, an official painter for French naval expeditions throughout the mid nineteenth-century, and James Bryant, an artist for the Illustrated London News (Wilson-Bareau, 44), also depicted this maritime event that warranted such attention from the politically conscious in 1864 France. Beth Ann Brombert in her Edouard Manet, Pierre Daix in his La Vie de Peintre d’Edouard Manet, and Juliet Wilson-Bareau in her exhibition catalogue Manet and the American Civil War each independently corroborate the claim that, like Durand-Brager and Bryant, Manet was not present for the battle and therefore based his depiction on newspaper accounts, sketches, and other readily accessible material in the weeks following the naval engagement (Brombert, 160; Daix, 128; Wilson-Bareau, 41). If we assume, then, that Manet based his representation of the conflict upon little more than calculated conjecture, we can negate the notion that his painting The Battle of the ‘Kearsarge’ and ‘Alabama’ (left) was an objective assessment of the event. There exists, therefore, a large degree of subjectivity in not only his representation but also those of Durand-Brager and Bryant – and it is this subjectivity, this expression of the artist’s own sentiment in his work, that warrants a comparison among these three different portrayals. In comparing Manet’s The Battle of the ‘Kearsarge’ and ‘Alabama’ to Bryant’s and Durand-Brager’s own depictions of the battle, we are able to further perceive how Manet unfavorably portrays the anti-imperialist, anti-Napoleonic Kearsarge in distancing the ship on the canvas. In so doing, we can further perceive the discrepancy between his stated anti-imperialist political views and his pro-imperialist portrayal on canvas.
Durand-Brager’s Battle of the U.S.S. Kearsarge and the C.S.S. Alabama, 1864
Unlike Manet, Durand-Brager does not distance the Kearsarge on his canvas (left) and affirms the warship’s presence. The Kearsarge in his painting, which Charles-Olivier Merson complemented for its "amazing exactness" (qtd. Wilson-Bareau, 45), possesses a status of indubitable prominence – the boat is not relegated to a barely discernable, distanced placement in the background, as in Manet’s depiction, but rather is presented proudly to the front and right. Here the positioning of the Kearsarge in the foreground permits the warship to visually supersede the white, receding trails of gun smoke that engulf the Alabama to the left. The Kearsarge is not enveloped by the smoke, rendering it the overwhelmed, distanced, negated warship of Manet’s painting, but on the contrary exercises a sort of authority as it presides over the Alabama’s destruction. In Durand-Brager’s depiction, the Kearsarge victoriously escapes from the smoke as the Alabama is overwhelmed in the distance; in Manet’s painting, it is the Alabama that coolly escapes while the distant, anti-Napoleonic Kearsarge is suffocated. This prominent placement of the Kearsarge in relation to the gun smoke in Durand-Brager’s painting also permits the masts of the Union ship to become readily apparent – the vertical nature of the three masts further solidifies the Kearsarge’s presence in the composition, augmenting its stature and leaving no doubt as to who is victor and who is vanquished. The masts of the Kearsarge in Manet’s depiction, however, are indistinguishable from the Alabama’s and barely noticeable in the distance as they are oppressed by the black cloud. In this instance, not only are we unable, without prior knowledge, to divine who won and who lost the fight, but the phallic symbols of the Kearsarge’s virility, its masts, are also absent and undermined. Manet undermines the Kearsarge in the process.
Durand-Brager’s prominent positioning of this Union warship, furthermore, creates a sense of movement that Manet’s Kearsarge lacks. The prominence of the curved, horizontal black hull of Durand-Brager’s Kearsarge that consumes half the width of the canvas makes the warship appear as if it is approaching the beholder, moving out and around in pursuit of the hapless Alabama. This circuitous route of the Kearsarge, as a result of the boat’s non-distanced positioning in the work, allows the Union battleship to effectively wrap around the Alabama, constricting it and usurping the Confederate enemy’s presence. Kearsarge displaces Alabama, literally and figuratively, in this painting. In Manet’s depiction, however, the Kearsarge remains mired in ignominy, motionless, and undermined by the upwardly-angled, ever-moving Alabama. In The Battle of the ‘Kearsarge’ and ‘Alabama’, it is the Confederate cruiser that moves and supplants, not the distant Union battleship. For Manet, the pro-Napoleon, pro-imperialist Alabama is the winner, not the anti-imperialist, Union Kearsarge.
Bryant's Illustration, 1864
Bryant, like Durand-Brager, does not distance the Kearsarge in his portrayal of the incident (right), but rather celebrates the grand ship’s presence to the point of absurd exaggeration. Manet’s distant and emasculated Union warship looks even paltrier in comparison to this larger-than-life representation – the two-dimensionality of Bryant’s Kearsarge allows the warship to simply overwhelm the seascape. The Kearsarge’s close, non-distanced placement in the work emphasizes its stature and significance: the anti-imperialist Union warship is not the one supplanted in the distance, as in Manet’s portrayal, but by contrast is the one that does the supplanting. Proudly emitting a trail of victorious, almost celebratory gun discharge, Bryant’s Kearsarge is undoubtedly triumphant over the small, distant, pathetically sinking Alabama on the left. There is no doubt here as to who is the victor and who is the vanquished. In Manet’s The Battle of the ‘Kearsarge’ and ‘Alabama,’ however, the Kearsarge remains utterly negated and distanced, its presence irrefutably undermined. Manet unfavorably portrays the anti-imperialist Kearsarge in this work, thereby exhibiting a pro-imperialist sentiment on canvas that differs from his professed political convictions.