{{short description|English painter}} {{for|the architect and inventor of agricultural implements|Robert Salmon (inventor)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox artist | name = Robert Salmon | image = East Indiaman Warley (adjusted).jpg | imagesize = | caption = ''The East Indiaman "Warley"'', 1804. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England | birth_name = Robert Salomon | birth_date = 1775 | birth_place = Whitehaven, Cumberland, England | death_date = 1845 (aged 70+) | death_place = Cumberland, after 1845 (exact date uncertain)<ref name=thyssen>{{cite web|url=http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/ficha_artista/507|title=El Museo de arte Thyssen-Bornemisza - (Paseo del Prado, 8, Madrid-España)|publisher=Museothyssen.org|accessdate=14 December 2014}}</ref> | field = Maritime art, Seascapes | movement = Luminism | works = ''Picture of "The Dream" Pleasure Yacht'', ''View of Venice'' }} thumb|Very early work done by Robert Salmon, circa 1795-1807. "Lighthouse on cliffs of Heligoland", Archipelago in Germany. '''Robert Salmon''' (1775 – {{circa|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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.artnet.com/galleries/artists_detail.asp?gid=453&aid=14817|title=Artists on artnet – Modern and Contemporary Artist|publisher=Artnet.com|accessdate=14 December 2014}}</ref>
==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.<ref name=thyssen /> 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.<ref name=dvs>{{cite web|url=http://www.dvsframes.com/id10.html|title=Robert Salmon Biography|publisher=Dvsframes.com|accessdate=14 December 2014|archive-date=1 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401084707/http://www.dvsframes.com/id10.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rehs.com/robert_salmon_the_estridge_off_dover.html|title=Robert ''Salmon'' (1775 - c.1845)|publisher=Rehs.com|accessdate=14 December 2014}}</ref>
''Robert 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.<ref name=dvs /> In April, 1811 he moved from the Liverpool area to Greenock, Scotland and then back to Liverpool in October 1822. In 1826 he returned to Greenock, then he left for London in 1827, and shortly thereafter he went to Southampton, 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.franklinriehlman.com/featured_artists/salmon/salmon_PortraitOfJPJones.shtm|title=Franklin Riehlman Fine Art - Robert Salmon|publisher=Franklinriehlman.com|accessdate=14 December 2014}}{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
==Emigration to America and life in Boston== thumb|''Wharves of Boston'', 1829 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.<ref name=oxford>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordgallery.com/Period_Artists/salmon.html|title=Robert Salmon|publisher=Oxfordgallery.com|accessdate=14 December 2014|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303234107/http://www.oxfordgallery.com/Period_Artists/salmon.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
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 Henry Lane. This contact between Lane and Salmon was of great importance to Lane, and became evident in his marine views.<ref name=thyssen />
During his lifetime, Salmon's work was very popular, and was collected by Bostonians Samuel Cabot, Robert Bennett Forbes, and John Newmarch Cushing.<ref name=oxford />
==Later years== ''Salmon'' left Boston in 1842 and for many years was believed to have died shortly after his leaving there. Instead, he returned to Europe and went to Italy. A number of Italian views attributed to him have survived, the latest of which is dated 1845, the year of his last documented work. The actual date of his death remains uncertain.<ref name=thyssen />
''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, Virginia; William A. Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine; Peabody Essex Museum of Salem; Shelburne Museum, Vermont; the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts; and the Channel Islands Maritime Museum, Oxnard, CA; Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO.
==Gallery==
<gallery> Image:Ship David Shaw.jpg|The ship {{ship||David Shaw|1805 ship|2}} off Bidston, Liverpool, 1807, Beacon Museum, Whitehaven Image:Robert Salmon - View of Greenock, Scotland.jpg|''View of Greenock, Scotland'', 1816. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Image:Robert Salmon - Picture of the 'Dream' pleasure Yacht.jpg| ''Picture of 'The Dream' Pleasure Yacht'', 1839. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Image:Robert Salmon - View of Venice.jpg|''View of Venice'', 1845. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. Image:Robert Salmon - View of Palermo.jpg|''View of Palermo'', 1845. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza. </gallery>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category|Robert Salmon}} * [http://www.askart.com/askart/s/robert_salmon/robert_salmon.aspx Askart.com] * [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/salmon_robert.html Artcyclopedia.com] * [https://archive.today/20120719150243/http://wwar.com/masters/s/salmon-robert.html Wwar.com] * [http://www.rehs.com/robert_salmon_the_estridge_off_dover.html ''The Estridge off Dover'', 1800] - Rehs Galleries' biography and an image of an early painting.
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salmon, Robert}} Category:1775 births Category:1845 deaths Category:18th-century English painters Category:English male painters Category:19th-century English painters Category:English marine artists Category:19th century in Boston Category:19th-century English male artists Category:18th-century English male artists Category:Luminism (American art style)