Letter of the week Jaws for thought
JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY, creator of John BlashfordSnell’s favourite painting (October 19), produced an exciting 18th-century version of Jaws. In 1749, a 14-yearold orphaned English cabin boy, Brook Watson, went for a cooling swim in Havana harbour, only to be attacked by a shark. Watson was saved by his shipmates, his mauled right leg was amputated and he went on to become a director of the Bank of England and Lord Mayor of London. Watson and the Shark (above), painted in 1778, caused a sensation when it was exhibited at the Royal Academy.
Watson bequeathed the painting to Christ’s Hospital as an example of triumph over adversity; it now hangs in Washington DC. When Watson was created baronet in 1803, he asked that the leg he lost in Havana and the shark be included in his coat of arms. Juliet Barclay, London