| The Battle of La Hogue | |
| Artist: | Benjamin West |
| Year: | 1778 |
| Type: | Oil on canvas |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| Museum: | National Gallery of Art |
| City: | Washington |
The Battle of La Houge is a 1778 painting by the Anglo-American artist Benjamin West depicting the 1692 Battle of La Hogue.[1] [2] Fought off the coast of Normandy the battle was decisive victory for the Royal Navy and its Dutch Allies, thwarting an expected French Invasion of England.
West was a Pennsylvania-born artist who settled in England in the 1760s. He made his name with his 1770 epic painting The Death of General Wolfe. It was produced during the American War of Independence when Britain and France were again at war. West's The Battle of the Boyne, completed the same year, depicted a celebrated victory over French-Jacobite forces during same conflict. The two paintings were displayed at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in 1780, cementing his popularity.[3] He received a number of commissions from George III and later became the second President of the Royal Academy.
West condensed the complex events of the battle into a single dramatic composition using poetic licence. Particular emphasis is given to George Rooke on the left of the painting standing upright in a boat wit his sword raised. In the background the French ship-of-the-line Soleil Royal is being run aground. The work is now in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..[4]