Biografie von Robert W. SALMON (1775-1842/51)

Birth place: St. James, Whitehaven, England

Profession: Marine and landscape painter

Exhibited: PAFA, 1841, 1852, 1858 (in this year his Gleaners in Brittany" was shown, listing his address as London, suggesting he was still alive)"

Work: NMAA; NGA; MMA; BMFA; CGA; Soc. for the Preservation of New England Antiquitites, Boston; Mariner's Mus., Newport News, VA; Shelburne (VT) Mus.; U.S. Naval Acad. Mus., Annapolis, MD; Mystic (CT) Seaport Mus.

Comments: Active as a marine painter in England as early as 1800; he was at Liverpool from 1806 to 1812; at Greenock (Scotland) from 1812 to 1822; at Liverpool again from 1822-25, back to Greenock in 1825; and at London, Southampton, and North Shields in 1826. In 1828 he emigrated to America, first to New York, but soon settled in Boston where he thrived as the region's leading marine and ship painter until he returned to England in 1842. He died at an unknown date after that, sometime between 1844 and 1851 (see Brewington; Baigell; Wilmerding) but possibly even after 1858 (see Falk, PA, vol. 1, 193). Salmon had a significant impact on the develpment of marine painting in the U.S., influencing artists such as Fitz Hugh Lane, with whom he worked in the lithographic shop of William Pendleton (see entries on each). Salmon usually painted on small panels and it is estimated that he produced about 300 works while living in Boston. In 1839 he recorded his 1000th painting on a list begun in 1806.

Sources: G&W; Childs, Robert Salmon," with 15 repros.; Karolik Cat.; Boston CD 1831-40; Cowdrey, NAD; Swan, BA; Cowdrey, AA & AAU; Rutledge, PA, vol. 1; Falk, PA, vol. 2; Rutledge, MHS; Tolman, "Salmon's View of Boston." More recently see 300 Years of American Art, vol. 1, 80; Brewington; Baigell, Dictionary; Wilmerding, Robert Salmon: Painter of Ship and Shore, (1971); Muller, Paintings and Drawings at the Shelburne Museum, 123 (w/repro.); also, the Boston Public Library owns Salmon's diary, dated 1828-41."