Robert Salmon
Oxford Grove Art:
Top
Robert Salmon
(b Cumberland [now Cumbria], c. 1775; d ?England, ?1848-51). American painter of English origin. Having trained and painted in England and Scotland, he moved to Boston in 1828, painting in a 'little hut' near the wharves of South Boston. Reportedly an eccentric, he became a successful painter of marine views, adopting a range of different scales, including small wooden panels, larger canvases and theatre backdrops. Moonlight Coastal Scene (1836; St Louis, MO, A. Mus.) is typical of his works on panel, and it demonstrates his use of light to silhouette form. There are no extant examples of the panoramic views done as backdrops; his canvases such as Wharves of Boston (1829; Boston, MA, Old State House) and View of Charlestown (1833; Annapolis, MD, US Naval Acad. Mus.) are full of carefully delineated figures, minute and accurate details of the ships and their rigging, and, most importantly, large expanses of sky dominated by strong light. Salmon's portrayal of light-filled water and sky, increasingly luminous in the late 1830s and early 1840s, has caused him to be considered by some as the father of LUMINISM (i). He used a low viewpoint and contrasted a distant shoreline and small-scale figures in the foreground in a manner that prefigured the work of Fitz Hugh Lane and Martin Johnson Heade, both of whom were influenced by Salmon's manipulation of scale, light and subject-matter. It appears that he returned to England before his death.
See the Abbreviations for further details.
Related Videos:
Top
Robert Salmon
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Robert Salmon
| Robert Salmon | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Robert Salomon |
| Born | 1775 Whitehaven, Cumberland, England |
| Died | 1845 (aged 70+) Cumberland, after 1845 (exact date uncertain) [1] |
| Nationality | British |
| Field | Maritime art, Seascapes |
| Movement | Luminism |
| Works | Picture of "The Dream" Pleasure Yacht, View of Venice |
Robert Salmon (1775-c. 1845) was a maritime artist, active in both England and America. Salmon completed nearly 1,000 paintings, all save one of maritime scenes or seascapes. He is widely considered the Father of American Luminism.[2]
|
Contents
|
Early life in England
Salmon was born in Whitehaven, Cumberland, England in October or November, 1775 as Robert Salomon; he was christened on 5 November 1775 in Whitehaven. [3] His father, Francis Salomon, was a jeweler. The young Salmon clearly studied the work of Dutch marine painters of the 17th century, the Italian painters of vedute, and the work of Claude Lorrain, but little else is known of his early training. [4] His earliest known works, Two Armed Merchantmen Leaving Whitehaven Harbor and The ‘Estridge’ Off Dover are dated 1800; the first work he exhibited at the Royal Academy was in 1802. [5]
Salmon settled in the busy seaport of Liverpool in 1806 and changed his name from Salomon to Salmon. Many of his marine paintings from this early period survive, and are housed in the National Maritime Museum in London. His ship portraits indicate he had a familiarity with sailing ships and an intimate knowledge of how they worked. These portraits tend to follow his traditional practice of showing the same vessel in at least two positions on the same canvas.[6] In April, 1811 he moved from the Liverpool area to Greenock, Scotland and then back to Liverpool in October of 1822. In 1826 he returned to Greenock, then he left for London in 1827, and shortly thereafter he went to Southhampton, North Shields and Liverpool.
Along with many other young artists, Salmon believed that his artistic future lay in the United States. Before his departure in 1828, the artist executed his only extant portrait, Portrait of the Corsair, John Paul Jones, a work very much a part of the Romantic ethos of his time. He assumed his "likeness" of Paul Jones would form a bond with the viewers in his future home. He could not know, having never been to America, that the memory of America's greatest naval hero had effectively vanished in the public mind before the painting was completed.[7]
Emigration to America and life in Boston
In 1828, Salmon left Europe for the United States on the packet ship, "New York", arriving on New Years Day, 1829 and staying until 1840. Living in a small hut on Marine Railway Wharf overlooking Boston Harbor, Salmon prospered as a marine painter, accepting commissions to paint ship portraits. During the growth of Boston Harbor in the first half of the century, Salmon painted between 300-400 paintings of the Harbor, in the style of 17th century Dutch genre painting. He was thought to be an eccentric, solitary and irascible man.[8]
Salmon soon became one of the most prominent Boston seascape painters. During the ensuing years, he divided his time between painting and working in the lithographic studio of William S. Pendleton, where he encountered William Bradford and Fitz Hugh Lane. This contact between Lane and Salmon was of great importance to Lane, and became evident in his marine views.[9] During his lifetime, Salmon's work was very popular, and was collected by Bostonians Samuel Cabot, Robert Bennett Forbes, and John Newmarch Cushing. [10]
Later years
Salmon left Boston in 1842 and for many years was believed to have died shortly after his leaving there. It has come to light that he went to Italy on his return to Europe. A number of Italian views attributed to him have survived, the latest of which is dated 1845. His last documented work was executed in 1845. The actual date of his death remains uncertain.[11]
Robert Salmon's works can be found at the U.S. Naval Academy; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut; Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, Connecticut; Mariners Museum, Newport News; William A. Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; Peabody Essex Museum of Salem; Shelburne Museum, Vermont; and the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts.
Gallery
-
View of Greenock, Scotland, 1816. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
-
Picture of 'The Dream' Pleasure Yacht, 1839. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
-
View of Venice, 1845. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
-
View of Palermo, 1845. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
-
The East Indiaman "Warley", 1804. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England
.jpg)
References
- ^ http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_artista/507
- ^ http://www.artnet.com/galleries/artists_detail.asp?gid=453&aid=14817
- ^ http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_artista/507
- ^ http://www.dvsframes.com/id10.html
- ^ http://www.rehs.com/robert_salmon_the_estridge_off_dover.html
- ^ http://www.dvsframes.com/id10.html
- ^ http://www.franklinriehlman.com/featured_artists/salmon/salmon_PortraitOfJPJones.shtm
- ^ http://www.oxfordgallery.com/Period_Artists/salmon.html
- ^ http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_artista/507
- ^ http://www.oxfordgallery.com/Period_Artists/salmon.html
- ^ http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_artista/507
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Salmon |
- http://www.askart.com/askart/s/robert_salmon/robert_salmon.aspx
- http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/salmon_robert.html
- http://www.oxfordgallery.com/Period_Artists/salmon.html
- http://wwar.com/masters/s/salmon-robert.html
- The Estridge off Dover, 1800 - Rehs Galleries' biography and an image of an early painting.
- Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Biography and Works: Robert Salmon
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
Oxford Grove Art
The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.
Read more
