Howard Pyle and His Students

Marooned, 1909
Howard Pyle (1853-1911)
Not published
Oil on canvas
40 x 60 in.
Museum Purchase, 1912
DAM #1912-136

In Marooned, the narrative resides not in the pirate’s actions or character, but in his hopeless state of abandonment.  His face is hidden, as if his expression, reflecting the brutality of his fate, would be too hard to bear.

Marooning was the most extreme punishment for violators of the pirates’ self-imposed code of conduct. Stealing from fellow-crew and deserting one’s post in battle, for example,  merited marooning: the pirate was put ashore on a deserted sand bar with a day’s supply of water, and no food or shelter, but often with a loaded pistol. This pirate’s gold buckles and buttons, his tasseled swashbuckler’s hat, and the rich red brocade draped so gracefully behind him, recall his forever-lost place in the treacherous pirate hierarchy.

The inescapable sand and immense burning sky intensify the painting’s monumental scale and emotional impact. The tension of the pirate’s interlocked fingers foreshadow the drawn-out agony of  madness and then death from thirst and starvation.  No wind stirs the sea, almost lifeless at the horizon, its surf barely and silently breaking. Birds pass by without alighting. Pyle has given us not just the end of an adventurer’s life but a commentary on human tragedy.