- Title: John Paul Jones
- Author: Johnson, Fry & Co.
- Date: c.1861
- Condition: A crisp steel engraving on a very clean sheet. Superb.
- Inches: 8 1/4 x 10 3/4 [Paper]
- Centimeters: 20.95 x 27.30 [Paper]
- Product ID: 308732
Defiant Revolutionary Sea Wolf ~ I Have Not Begun to Fight
From the National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Americans, after a painting by Alonzo Chappel. A fine steel engraving printed on wove paper, issued as part of Johnson, Fry & Co.’s ambitious patriotic series celebrating notable figures in the nation’s political and cultural history.
John Paul Jones (1747–1792) was the most celebrated naval officer of the American Revolution, a Scottish‑born mariner whose audacious raids carried the war to Britain’s own coasts. Beginning with command of small Continental Navy vessels like the Ranger, he harassed British commerce and made daring descents on coastal targets, using seamanship and nerve to compensate for the young republic’s tiny fleet. His fame was sealed in 1779 aboard the aging French‑supplied Bonhomme Richard, when, locked in a brutal close‑quarters fight with HMS Serapis and urged to surrender, he is reputed to have replied, “I have not yet begun to fight,” before ultimately capturing the superior British ship.
After the Revolution, Jones served briefly under other flags, including Russia, but Americans continued to claim him as their first great naval hero and a model of aggressive, offensive‑minded sea power. Portraits and 19th‑century engravings of Jones lean into this legend, presenting him as a determined, almost romantic figure on a stormy quarterdeck, emblematic of a new nation’s willingness to challenge the Royal Navy against impossible odds. His name and image became staples of “eminent American” series, where he stands in for the birth of the United States Navy and the ideal of fearless resistance at sea.