# Attack on Bunker's Hill, with the Burning of Charles Town

**Unknown artist**  
1783 or after  
oil on canvas  
overall: 53.3 x 70.8 cm (21 x 27 7/8 in.) framed: 60.3 x 77.4 x 3.8 cm (23 3/4 x 30 1/2 x 1 1/2 in.)

Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1953.5.86. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.42489.html).

## About this work

An unrecorded American artist painted this in 1783 or after. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

### What you’re looking at

We look across and down at a channel of water separating two landmasses labeled "Boston" and "Charles Town" in this horizontal landscape painting. Four three-masted ships are in the aquamarine-blue harbor between us and the land. Three of them have their sails unfurled and smoke billows from the broad, starboard side of each. Tidy rows of brown houses line the area of Boston. A puff of white smoke rises from the farthest point. Two arrow-shaped missiles, perhaps projectiles on fire, arc toward Charles Town, where billowing gray plumes of smoke rise from vivid orange fire on the far side of the landmass. Rowboats bring soldiers to the shore of Charles Town, close to where hundreds of soldiers line up and fire at each other. Much of the rest of Charles Town is a hill leading to sheer cliffs to our right. Tan and gray-colored smoke mixes among bright white clouds against a pale blue sky on the top half of the painting.

_Description from the National Gallery of Art._

### How it was made

- **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: American
- Real size: about 21 × 28 in (53 × 71 cm). The 20 × 30 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Movement: [Romanticism](https://www.ochreeditions.com/movements/romanticism)
- Subjects: United States, Naval Battle, Boston, Charlestown
- Colour: green
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1503.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1503/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/attack-on-bunker-s-hill-with-the-burning-of-charles-town-nga-42489).