Marine artists of Liverpool

Magazine Antiques, August, 1996 by Allison Eckardt Ledes

In 1818 a group of enterprising New Yorkers founded the Black Ball Line, which operated a scheduled packet service between Liverpool and New York. The idea of a timetable was both innovative and immediately successful, since the confirmed pickup and delivery of freight, passengers, mail, and specie gave the shipping line a monopoly on the Atlantic. A number of other firms were founded shortly afterward, and in less than a decade these companies dominated trade between England and America.

Liverpool's location at the terminus of railroad and canal systems that connected it to The Midlands - England's industrial center - made it an ideal port. It grew so quickly that by 1840 there was dock space for more than one thousand ships at a time. By 1850 nearly one-quarter of the ships that put into port there were American-owned. In the same period more than twenty thousand European and British emigrants were boarding outbound ships each month. Passengers, and the trade of American raw materials and agricultural products for British manufactured goods, ensured hefty profits. For a variety of reasons the attempts of Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to supplant New York City's maritime dominance were not successful.

The Liverpool ship portraitists included some professionals, but most were also engaged as shipbuilders, house painters, plumbers, or tobacconists, among other occupations, who accepted commissions for ship portraits to supplement their income. Pride in their vessels occasioned owners to demand a high degree of accuracy, and among the most widely sought artists were those familiar with the rigging of a ship and other technicalities. The Liverpool artists were in demand until England's paddle steamers came to dominate the seas in the 1850s and the Civil War disrupted, and ultimately ended, American shipping interests abroad.

Perhaps the best known of the Liverpool artists was Robert Salmon (1775-c. 1845), who had exhibited at London's Royal Academy before coming to Liverpool. There he painted about one hundred works between 1806 and 1811, and then returned to paint some eighty more between about 1822 and 1825. Eventually Salmon emigrated to Boston, where he excelled in painting harbor views and marine subjects.

Among the lesser-known but talented artists whose work is represented in the exhibition is John Jenkinson (w. 1790-1821), whose paintings are accomplished enough to have been hitherto confused with Salmon's. Miles Walters (1773-1855) was born in North Devon, England, and apprenticed to a shipwright before moving to London to establish himself as a painter, frame maker, and gilder. His arrival in Liverpool in 1827 (the date inscribed on his first-known Liverpool painting) was fortuitous because Jenkinson was dead and Salmon was in America, leaving a niche for a skilled artist like Walters. His son, Samuel (1811-1882), was also a marine artist of note and the family dominated this field for some time.

Typically, the ownership of vessels was divided into sixty-four shares with profits and losses divided commensurately. Ship portraits were a tangible reminder of their stake for investors, who, according to their means, could commission highly skilled professionals or less-accomplished amateur artists to memorialize their holding on canvas.

The catalogue for the exhibition, which was organized by the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, was written by Daniel Finamore. It contains 77 pages, 39 color plates, and 14 black-and-white illustrations and may be obtained for $19.95 (paper covers) plus $3.95 for shipping and handling from the Peabody Essex Museum Shop, East India Square, Salem, Massachusetts 01970; or telephone 508-745-1876.

For students and collectors

The Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library has announced that its annual Winter Institute will take place between January 19 and February 7, 1997. The graduate-level course is entitled "Perspectives on the Decorative Arts in Early America," and surveys objects made or used in the Northeast during the colonial and early republican eras. The program is centered around lectures, workshops, field trips, and studies within the museum's period rooms. The deadline for the receipt of applications is August 15. For applications and additional information contact Bente Jacobsen, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Winterthur, Delaware 19735; or telephone 302-888-4643.

The American Ceramic Circle awards grants for expenses (such as travel and photography) associated with the preparation of scholarly papers in the field of the history of ceramics. Grants will not exceed $3,000. The organization will have the first right to publish these papers and supporting illustrations in its journal and grant recipients are expected to present a lecture based upon their findings at a future American Ceramic Circle symposium. The deadline for the receipt of applications is October 1. For applications and additional information contact Susan Gray Detweiler, chairman of the American Ceramic Circle scholarship committee, 419 Gate Lane, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19119.