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SHIPPING ON THE MERSEY OFF BIRKENHEAD

measurements
27 by 43 1/2 in.

alternate measurements
(68.6 by 110.5 cm)

signed with initials RS and dated 1810, l.r.

oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

Richard Green Gallery, London, England
Acquired by the present owners from the above, 1985

NOTE

British-born marine painter Robert Salmon's career has been divided by scholars into two parts; 1800 to 1828, when his work centered on Liverpool, England and Greenock, Scotland, and 1828 to 1842, the period he resided in United States, specifically Boston. It is unknown whether or not Salmon was self-taught, however, in his work from as early as 1800, when he was about 25 years of age, he achieves a level of confidence and maturity in his craftsmanship and aesthetic sensibility. The present work, dating from 1810, offers a historic account of the shipping industry off Birkenhead in the early nineteenth century. Birkenhead, at one time a thriving sea port and center of shipbuilding, is located in northwest England, opposite Liverpool, on the left bank of the River Mersey. The year of this painting, Birkenhead boasted only 106 residents, its dramatic economic transformation occurring more than ten year later when William Laird, a pioneer in the construction of iron ships, established boiler works and a shipyard.

According to John Wilmerding, "Salmon's work has a freshness and an honesty that were sometimes lost by his contemporaries. While his manner was one of exacting representation, his marines never became a succession of dry topographical renderings, nor his ship portraits mere virtuoso exercises in architectural drafting" (American Maritime Painting, New York, 1987, p. 88) Here, Salmon captures a clear, blustery day as a number of ships enter and depart the busy harbor. The central ship flies a British flag and the Blue Peter, a white rectangle enclosed in a blue border. When hoisted alone at the foremost mast, the Blue Peter, an international maritime signal flag, announces "All board, the vessel is about to go to sea."