In the 1860s Ohio-born Beard won fame in New York for satirical paintings in which animals were substituted for humans. This painting, however, differs from most of those, for its mood is more ominous than humorous, and its meaning is unclear. The predatory crows perched on the half-buried mast of a wrecked ship create an air of unspecified evil; the near-monochrome palette-especially the gray sea and foggy sky-intensifies the atmosphere of mystery and gloom.

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