Existing comment:
. . . If we fail, let us fail like men, and expire together in one common struggle . . .
-- Henry Clay, 1813
Panel 23, 1956
The inscription on the back of this painting identifies its subject as the landmark American naval victory over the British on September 10, 1813, at the Battle of Lake Erie in Ohio. However, the image depicts a scene of utter desolation where a lone American seaman stranded amidst billows of torn sails lays dying. A sword has pierced his eye and blood falls like teardrops while his own weapon slips from his unclenched hand. The clue to this painting's true meaning may be found in its title caption which is excerpted from a speech Senator Henry Clay delivered to Congress to request continued funding for the War with Britain which was going into its second year of fighting. From this text, Lawrence imagined the consequences Clay warned of: the entire nation is threatened when it abandons the common struggle to protect people from their oppressors.
In Lawrence's Time:
This 1943 mural of black sailor Cyrus Tiffany and Commander Oliver Hazard Perry by Martyl Schweig Langsdorf visualizes the contributions of black people in America's early wars as public art. Tiffany served as a sailor in the Battle of Lake Erie and he was in charge of Perry's multiracial crew. In his painting, Lawrence diverged from the convention of picturing Tiffany heroically shielding Perry as they transferred vessels in the midst of battle. |