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Robert Salmon's Boston Patrons

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Robert Salmon's Boston Patrons Robert Salmons’ Boston Patrons By JOHN WILMERDING OBERT SALMONS’ patrons kind of ship and harbor portrait with a give a clear idea of his reputation polish that Perkins could appreciate. Sal- R in Boston. As one reviews the list mon had not been in Boston a year when of those who acquired his pictures, he be- his discriminating patron made the first of comes conscious of the many names then what would be several purchases . and still prominent. Of the thirty-two Samuel Cabot, Perkins’ son-in-law, individuals whom Salmon himself records was in I 837 the director of the Boston as customers, almost all were engaged in Bank and the year after president of the Boston’s prosperity as a seaport. Some Port Society of the City of Boston and its were makers of boats or sails. Among Vicinity. John Perkins Cushing, a nephew others interested in his work were of Perkins, was similarly engaged in Bos- Thomas Handasyd Perkins and his son, ton’s mercantile affairs. Beginning as a T. H. Perkins, Jr.; R. B. Forbes and J. clerk in the firm established by his two P. Cushing, his nephews; and Samuel Perkins uncles, James and Thomas H., Cabot, his son-in-law. Together, these Cushing soon became interested in the men begin to provide a picture of con- company’s trade with China and the temporary tastes in Boston collecting. In Northwest Coast. In 1803 at the age of this respect Salmon’s catalogue is the most sixteen he went to China, where he re- detailed continuing record over a period mained for nearly thirty years, a highly of time which tells us who collected in respected foreign merchant known as Boston in the first half of the nineteenth Ku-Shing. Enormously wealthy but century, what they bought, and what they broken in health by 1830, Cushing re- paid.l turned to Boston. He built himself a The artist could hardly have found a handsome mansion on Summer Street, more distinguished customer than the acquired a splendid estate in Watertown, elder Perkins. A native of Boston, one of and erected one of the finest conserva- her most famous merchants, philanthrop- tories in New England. He also con- ists, and a prominent member of the Fed- structed the sixty-foot pilot schooner eralist Party, Perkins was elected to the Sylph, which in 1832 won the earliest United States Senate eight times between American yacht race on record. A collec- 1805 and 1829, besides being a presiden- tor as well, he would have naturally tial elector in 1816 and I 832. He gen- found appealing the marines of Boston’s erously supported public institutions as best practitioner of the day. Like Cush- well as individuals like Salmon. Obvious- ing, Captain Robert Bennet Forbes was ly this marine painter could produce the also a Perkins nephew. According to EDITORIAL NOTE: The text of this article Morison, Forbes “had the most original represents a chapter excerpted from a forth- brain, and the most attractive personality coming book on Salmon by Mr. Wilmerding, of any Boston merchant of his genera- who is the Chairman of the Department of Art tion . [He] was also one of the pio- at Dartmouth College. The book will be pub- lished jointly by the Boston Public Library and neer yachtsmen of New England.“* En- the Peabody Museum of Salem. tering employment in the Perkins ship- 86 Robert Salmons’ Boston Patrons 87 ping firm at thirteen, Forbes embarked on corded by Charles Francis Adams, one of a colorful career in which he succeeded as the most illustrious members of that fam- sea captain, China merchant, ship owner, ily, a distinguished U. S. statesman and and writer. The catalogue of the 1834 minister to Great Britain. Although Sal- exhibition of paintings at the Boston mon did not himself record selling a Athenaeum lists six paintings owned by painting to Adams, the latter set down in Forbes which were the work of Salmon. his diary, in rather Yankee fashion, his ac- Since some of their titles do not plausibly quisition of a picture by the marine match the sketchy descriptions in Sal- painter. mon’s catalogue, Forbes may have owned On 5 August 1830 he wrote: even a larger group of paintings than the HavinE done all my usual duties at the office nine that Salmon mentions. I though;1 would go-down to see how the pic- Other noted Boston names were tures of Salmon would sell. Thev are all of among Salmon’s clients in the 1830s.’ them very pretty and went so ver; reasonably Henry W. Sigourney was one of the di- that I felt ;ery much tempted to purchase. Bit I held in exceedinplv- , well until the close. when rectors of the ferry company operating one came up which I could not resist and im- between Boston and Chelsea. Benjamin mediately repented of the act. But it was too Fullerton was a boat builder at 24 Charter late. Street. Josiah Putnam Bradlee was a He appended a footnote over a month merchant and also at one point a director later, on 24 September: of the Boston Bank. He headed the firm of Josiah Bradlee and Sons, a business My picture came home today and I was con- firmed in my opinion of it’s merit.3 with offices on India Wharf engaged both in the Russia trade and the whale fishery. Boston’s first generation of yachtsmen As described by those who remembered was also its first generation of art collec- him, Bradlee was “a cheerful, old-school tors. A number of the men who gave their gentleman . who wore small clothes patronage to Salmon, including Thomas and white-topped boots.” Samuel Hooper Perkins Cushing and Robert Bennet was a junior partner in his father-in-law’s Forbes, were among the first people in shipping firm, Bryant, Sturgis & Co. He Massachusetts to have yachts built for subsequently organized his own company, themselves. When the Bostonian Society and went on to be elected to the Massa- held a large and popular exhibition of chusetts and to the United States House ship paintings in I 894, a painting by Sal- of Representatives. Harrison Gray Otis mon brought interesting information with was another distinguished figure in Bos- it. Loaned by Thomas B. Winchester, the ton commerce and philanthropy. In an picture was of the Yacht ‘Northere earlier age Otis had commissioned three Light,” “painted by R. Salmon for Mr. successive houses from the noted archi- Stephen Winchester Dana, and by him tect, Charles Bulfinch. James Trecothick given to Col. Wm. Parsons Winchester, Austin was an accomplished Massachu- the owner of the yacht, representing it setts lawyer and politician, and from 1832 passing down the harbor.” Salmon’s cata- to I 843 state Attorney General. Timothy logue does not record the sale of any Williams was another merchant with paintings to a Mr. Dana, but a “Mr. ofices on India Wharf. Winchester” did purchase a “loch Lo- One interesting collector’s note is re- mond sun set? in 1830 and “an Ameri- BOSTON FROM PEMBERTON HILL, BY ROBERT SALMON Collections of the Society. Robert Salmons’ Boston Patrons 89 can Sloup” in I 83 I. The picture of the Seizure of a French Ship by Boats from Northern Light would have been painted the U. S. S. “Constitution,” and involves no earlier than 1839, when this smart not only Davis but his brother John as schooner was built for Colonel Win- well as the first lieutenant of the Consti- chester. The description of Salmon’s tution, Isaac Hull. John Paul Russo has painting has additional interest, for the sorted out the facts related to the incident Northern Light was the subject of the and to the painting’s subsequentpresenta- only painting which Fitz Hugh Lane is tion to the Athenzeum.4 John Davis had known to have basedon a picture by Sal- distinguished himself in Boston as United mon. States District Judge for Massachusetts, Salmon also painted, in 1839, the founder and early officer of the Athe- Dream, a schooner yacht owned by the nnum, Fellow of Harvard College, and Boat Club, of which R. B. Forbes was President of the MassachusettsHistorical first commodore. The artist’s interest in Society. He evidently commissioned Sal- yachts and yachting seemsto have been of mon’s painting as a present for the now long standing; among the pictures he ex- Commodore Hull, commander of the hibited at Liverpool in I 824 was one of a Boston Naval Shipyard and hero of the “Pleasure Yacht.” In view of his inter- famous battle of the Guer&re. Probably est in yachts on both sidesof the Atlantic, his brother, Isaac Davis, then an Athe- it is interesting to recall a detail from A. nieum trustee and member of the Fine T. Perkins’ letter of I 88 I concerning the Arts Committee actually purchased the four paintings by Salmon which he painting. After receiving the painting owned. The red cutter in three of the from John Davis, Commodore Hull in pictures had belonged, he remembered, turn gave it to the Athenaeum in 1835. to an English nobleman with whom his Salmon’s paintings of Boston harbor father, T. H. Perkins, Jr., and Salmon and shoreline were among his best, and both had sailed. doubtlesshad an impact on other younger Through such associationsas these Sal- artists. His Wharves of Boston, now in mon seemsto have had wide acquaintance the Bostonian Society, is one of his finest with the men and affairs of maritime Bos- in quality and execution, with a sharpness ton.
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