John Ross Key

John Ross Key, grandson of Francis Scott Key—songwriter of “The Star-Spangled Banner”—was largely self-taught with brief studies in Munich and Paris.

In the 1850s, he worked as a topographical artist for the United States Coast Survey, where he befriended James McNeill Whistler. In 1859, he served as a cartographer on the Lander Expedition, charting trails through Nevada and Wyoming for the California Trail.

Key served in the Civil War and from 1863 to 1865, he was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina, producing meticulous maps and dramatic battle scenes, including Bombardment of Fort Sumter, Siege of Charleston Harbor, 1863—a work once misattributed to Albert Bierstadt.

After the war, Key lived in many cities across the United States, including Baltimore, Boston, New York, and San Francisco. While on the west coast, he painted views of the Sierra Nevadas, Point Lobos, and The Golden Gate. He was awarded a medal for his painting, The Golden Gate, at the U.S. Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia for artistic excellence in landscape.[1] While in Boston, Key established a studio and exhibited nearly 100 paintings at the Boston Athenaeum, the Boston Art Club and Leonard Auction Rooms.[2]

Key regularly exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Boston Art Club throughout the 1860s and 1870s. He won a medal at the Centennial Expo in Philadelphia in 1876. He was a member of the Society of Washington Artists and the Boston Art Club.

The artist’s works are held in the White House Historical Association, Maryland Historical Society, University of Michigan Art Museum, and Morris Museum of Art.

[1] Kimberly Orcutt, Power and Posterity: American Art at Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exhibition (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2018), 219.

[2] Catherine H. Campbell, New Hampshire Scenery: A Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Artists of New Hampshire Mountain Landscapes (Phoenix Publishings, 1985), 106.