BE 182
ROBERT SALMON
Whitehaven, Cumberland 1775 – circa 1850 Europe
The merchant ship Defiance in three positions off the entrance to Loch Ryan, below the Firth of Clyde
Signed with initials and dated lower right: R S 1812
Canvas: 20 x 31 in / 50.8 x 78.7 cm
Frame size: 26 x 36 ½ in / 66 x 92.7 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, UK
The three-masted, armed merchantman Defiance was built at Sunderland in 1812. Salmon’s crystalline portrait of her in the traditional stern, port broadside and bow views was undoubtedly made to celebrate her completion and entry into service. Measured at 346 tons, she had a full ship-rig and was rated A1 when examined by Lloyd’s surveyors in 1813 prior to being granted marine insurance. Owned by R Steward, whose initials are on the house flag on the foremast, her home port was Greenock, from where she began her career trading to Malta under her master Captain W Atholl. She had need of the eighteen guns visible in her open ports: the Napoleonic Wars were still in full spate (1812 was the year of Borodino) and vessels trading to Malta had to defend themselves against Barbary pirates.
Defiance is shown hove-to with her mainyards backed to take the way off the ship. She wears a pennant at the mainmast and her name flag at the mizzen, with the red ensign worn by merchant shipping at the after peak. The jack includes the red saltire cross of St Patrick, introduced after the Union with Ireland in 1801. A boat, probably a pilot gig, is alongside, with the pilot going aboard. On the left, an officer is being rowed to join the ship. A spectacular backdrop is provided by blue sky, scudding clouds and the outline of the triple peaks rising over Ballantrae. In the left distance is Ailsa Craig and in the right foreground Milleur Point, behind which Loch Ryan continues southwards for seven miles to the sheltered port of Stranraer. The breeze ruffling the water, the clouds edged with light and the curve of light on the sails are painted with a beauty and luminosity which would endear Salmon’s style to Americans when he moved to Boston in 1828.
Salmon, born in Whitehaven in Cumberland, moved to Greenock on the Clyde estuary in 1811 and remained there for eleven years. The grandeur of the scenery and the busy shipping lanes provided him both with inspiration and a steady stream of clients among the shipowners of the area. Loch Ryan and the Firth of Clyde north of it gave access to the North Channel by which shipping sailed round the treacherous coast of Ireland. By the early nineteenth century Glasgow, twenty-six miles up the Clyde from Greenock, was a powerhouse of the burgeoning industrial revolution. ‘The handsomest ships in the world are built on the banks of the Clyde, of all capacities, and suited for every trade’. James Watt (1736-1819) was a native of Greenock and his improvements to the steam engine made its maritime application possible. Ironically, in 1812, the same year that Salmon painted the elegant merchant ship Defiance, Henry Bell launched Europe’s first trading steamer, the Comet, which took passengers between Glasgow and Greenock and sounded the death knoll for the age of sail.
In 1813, Salmon painted The brig Nicholson off the entrance to Loch Ryan (private collection, USA) using the same backdrop and a similar configuration of sails. Salmon clearly kept detailed drawings, or perhaps oil sketches, in his studio which provided a reference for the vividly detailed topography of his work.
ROBERT SALMON
Whitehaven, Cumberland 1775 – circa 1850 Europe
A Whitehaven man, Robert Salmon was the son of Francis Salomon, a jeweller from London. He was baptised in the Parish Church of Saint James, Whitehaven, Cumberland, on 5th November 1775. Nothing is known about Robert’s early training, but he developed a unique style of carefully crafted crispness and clarity. He was an extremely peripatetic artist, who may have moved back to London with his family by 1800. By 1806 he had settled in Liverpool, where he remained until 1811, when he moved to Greenock; he divided the early part of his life between these three places. He seems to have been a loner, which may account for his restlessness; one journey from London took him all the way down the south coast to Lands End.
In 1826 Salmon was at Greenock for the earlier part of the year, but in November 1828 he sailed for America on the Blackwall sailing packet New York, settling in Boston, where he lived for the next thirteen years. He had a studio at the end of the Marine Railway Wharf overlooking the harbour, at a time when Boston was enjoying great maritime prosperity. As Samuel Eliot Morison remarked, ‘Never before or since had Boston Harbour been so crowded or the water front so congested with sailing vessels’. It was here that Salmon achieved his greatest success and recognition.
In June 1842 Salmon returned to Europe in failing health and his whereabouts become uncertain, although he is known to have painted Italian views, the latest being of Venice and Palermo, dated 1845. Another painting of this year has recently come to light, a Yacht regatta off New Brighton in the River Mersey, clearly dated 1845 (see AS Davison, Marine Art and the Clyde). It is likely that Salmon was in Europe circa 1845, although his death was not recorded in the Boston Evening Transcript until 1851.
The work of Robert Salmon is represented in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Peabody Museum of Salem and the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC.