HMS Steam-Powered Battleship Medusa Opening the Shimonoseki Straits

• HMS 'Medusa' Forcing the Passage through Shimonoseki Strait between Kyushu and Honshu, September 1864
• HMS Steam-Powered Battleship Medusa Opening the Shimonoseki Straits

SK-A-2725

signature: ‘E. v. Heemskerck v. Beest. f.’

Around 1860 Japan was in turmoil about whether or not the country should engage in trade with the West. In 1863 insurgents – advocates of an isolationist policy – fired on western vessels, including the Dutch warship Medusa, in the Shimonoseki Straits. In retaliation, the western allies mounted a military expedition to end the blockade. The Netherlands once again deployed HMS Medusa for this mission.

Documentatiemap Schilderijen: aantekeningen R. van Luttervelt (voor 1963).

painter: jonkheer Jacob Eduard van Heemskerck van Beest

1864

olieverf op doek

height 68 cm x width 107 cm

Gift of A.T.J. de Casembroot-van de Poll

gift 1885

Public domain

Documentatiemap Schilderijen: aantekeningen R. van Luttervelt (voor 1963).

To refer to this object, please use the following persistent URL:

https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200109356