Deck of a Warship
ca. 1833
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet (Trimmed): 9 7/16 × 11 7/8 in. (24 × 30.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Charles Z. Offin and Mary Oenslager Funds, 2016
Accession Number
2016.361
Tags
Art Historical Context
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg’s *Deck of a War* (ca. 1833) captures the bustling energy of naval life aboard a 19th-century vessel. This etching, measuring 9 7/16 × 11 7/8 inches, depicts sailors at work on the ship’s deck, evoking the disciplined world of maritime operations during an era when European navies were expanding amid global exploration and conflict. Eckersberg, a leading Danish artist of the Golden Age, was renowned for his precise, observational style, blending neoclassicism with emerging realism to document everyday scenes with meticulous detail. As an etching—a printmaking te...