The Starboard Battery and the Deck of the Corvette "Najaden"

Eckersberg began work on this painting of a section of a ship’s deck during a fourteen-day voyage in Danish waters on the corvette Najaden in July of 1833. The view is unusually narrow and restricted for an Eckersberg painting. He would have been visually fascinated by the many straight lines formed by the ropes and sails, offset by the tense curves of the sails – seemingly chaotic, yet governed by clear structure and meaning. Everything serves a function and is subjected to the overall design and purpose of the ship. To Eckersberg, this undoubtedly served as an expression of the higher divine order that he perceived in life (cf. Fischer 1983). Hardly any other painting by Eckersberg can match this one for stringent, consistent geometry; here he pares back all narrative content to a minimum.