Robert Salmon

Artist Biography

Born in Whitehaven, England, Robert Salmon moved to Boston in 1828 and became a well-regarded maritime painter. His early career was in England and Scotland, particularly in Liverpool and Greenock, painting scenes much influenced by the Dutch maritime tradition. In the United States, he translated his craft into painting detailed views of Boston’s wharves and shorelines, often doing commissions of ship portraits. He likely completed several hundred paintings of Boston Harbor. In Boston, he also worked in the lithography studio of William S. Pendleton with Fitz Hugh Lane, where his maritime painting influenced Lane’s work. His influence on younger American marine painters like Lane and others credits him as a precursor to the American luminist style. Today, his work may be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, Hunter Museum of American Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum, Penobscot Marine Museum, de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others.

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