Biografie von Cleveland ROCKWELL (1837-1907)

Birth place: Youngstown, OH

Death place: Portland, OR

Addresses: San Francisco, CA, 1868-78; Portland, OR, 1878-on

Profession: Landscape and marine painter

Studied: Troy (NY) Polytechnic; Univ. New York; in England

Exhibited: San Francisco AA, from 1873

Member: Oregon AA; Sketch Cl. of Portland

Work: Flavel Mus., Astoria, OR; Portland Art Mus.

Comments: Rockwell was a descendant of Governor Bradford of the Plymouth colony and of Moses Cleveland, who laid out the city of Cleveland in 1796. Beginning in 1857, he worked as a surveyor and mapmaker for the U.S. Coast Geodetic Dept., charting NY harbor, the Southern coast during the Civil War, and the Magdalena River, Colombia (1867). From 1868-92, he surveyed the Northern California and Oregon coasts. He does not appear to have begun painting until after the Civil War, but was active painting scenes along the coast that he surveyed, as well as ship portraits. He retired from the U.S.G.S. in 1892.

Sources: WW06; Hughes, Artists in California, 474-475; P&H Samuels, 404; 300 Years of American Art, vol. 1, 285