Twenty Gun Sloop of War in Mersey River Before Liverpool
Artist
Robert W. Salmon
(British, 1775 - 1851)
CultureBritish
Date1809
MediumOil on canvas with gilt wood frame
DimensionsOverall: 33 3/4 x 59 1/2 in. (85.7 x 151.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 41 1/4 x 65 3/4 x 4 in. (104.8 x 167 x 10.2 cm)
Overall, Frame: 41 1/4 x 65 3/4 x 4 in. (104.8 x 167 x 10.2 cm)
Credit LineMyers House admissions purchase
Object number65.33.40
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 209
Label TextRobert W. Salmon English/American (1775-ca. 1845) Twenty Gun Sloop of War in Mersey River before Liverpool, 1809 Oil on canvas Myers House admissions purchase, 1965 65.33.40 Twenty Gun Sloop is one of several meticulous studies of commercial and military vessels that Robert Salmon painted in Liverpool, England, in the early nineteenth century. These carefully drawn and technically accurate "ship portraits" had a strong appeal to the merchants, sea captains, and naval officers of his day, who spent their lives in and around the elegant ships. As is the case with many of Salmon's ship portraits, the same vessel is depicted here from several vantage points to provide a variety of views. Salmon left England in 1828 and moved to Boston, where he spent the next fourteen years recording the development of that rapidly growing harbor for the city's leading mercantile families. Native-born painters closely studied his work, admiring his imaginative narrative detail, lively use of light and shadow, and sense of captured motion. He is recognized as a formative influence on nineteenth-century American marine painting. Exhibition HistoryMoses Myers House, Norfolk, Va., 1983 - 2004. "Behind the Seen: The Chrysler's Hidden Museum," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., October 21, 2005 - February 19, 2006. "Reopening of the Joan P. Brock Galleries," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Opening in March of 2008. DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, March 26-April 30, 1967. Published References"Robert Salmon, The First Major Exhibition," (De Cordova Museum: Lincoln, MA, 1967), No. 10 in the catalog.
