Constitution versus Guerriere by Ambroise Louis Garneray.
USS Constitution Museum Collection.
More than 200 years of depictions of the Ship and her crew.
For over 200 years, Constitution’s graceful lines and stunning victories have inspired artists at home and abroad. From French émigré artist Michele Felice Cornè’s lively 1803 gouache portrait to William Gilkerson’s careful pen and ink renderings of today, the image of “Old Ironsides” has graced scores of canvases and fine drawing pads. Many of the best-known artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries immortalized the ship or her crew. Some like Gilbert Stuart painted from life, leaving a contemporary record of great detail and luminosity. Others like Julian O. Davidson and George Ropes painted pictures of their glorious imaginings, their broad brush strokes like the sweep of time they portrayed.
