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~dq~Marblehead~dq~ Coming into Port inscribed "No. 771 painted by R. Salmon, 1832, and No. 851 1836 R.S." (on reverse) oil on panel 153/4 x 233/4 in. (40 x 60.3 cm) painted in 1832-1836 provenance The artist Private Collection, 1982, maine Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., new york Quester Inc., connecticut Glen S. Foster, new york exhibited new york, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., lines of different character - american art from 1727-1947, 1982-83, p. 20, no. 8 (illustrated in color) Literature John Wilmerding, robert salmon, painter of ship and shore, 1971, Peabody Museum of Salem and Boston Public Library, Appendix A, Salmon~dq~s Catalogue of Paintings, registered as no. 771 and No. 851, p. 93, 95. In his catalogue of paintings, Salmon notes this painting was commissioned by a Mr. Hoper [sic] and completed in 1832. Hoper [sic] returned the painting to Salmon, the artist later altered the picture and sold it in a Boston auction in 1835 for $25. Robert Salmon emigrated from England to Boston in 1828. Although he produced many paintings during his more than ten-year sojourn in his adopted city, a careful reading of the "Catalogue of Robert Salmon~dq~s Pictures 1828-1840" reveals that Salmon~dq~s oeuvre consisted primarily of views along the English and Scottish coasts. American subject matter is rare, and important portraits like Bark ~dq~Marblehead~dq~ Coming into Port is an exception to the rule. Salmon was a businessman as well as an artist. He painted on commission, as was the case with Bark ~dq~Marblehead~dq~ Coming into Port, which one can readily see from "Catalogue of Robert Salmon~dq~s Pictures 1828-1840" The artist painted her portrait for Samuel Hooper, her owner and a junior partner of Bryant, Sturgis and Company, who later went on to be elected to the United States Congress. Salmon notes that Hooper returned the painting and that Salmon reworked it and sold it for his own account. Whether it was Salmon~dq~s lack of accuracy in depicting Marblehead, an unacceptable composition or simply the price which displeased Mr. Hooper remains a question. It is evidence however, of the tumultuous life of the working artist struggling to meet the demands of the day. Salmon~dq~s client list reads like a "Who~dq~s Who of Boston": Harrison Gray Otis, Henry W. Sigourney, Robert Bennet Forbes, Josiah Putnam Bradlee, Thomas Perkins, J.P. Cushing, Samuel Cabot-statesmen, merchants, businessmen, bankers, yachtsmen-Salmon knew them all and valued them as clients and patrons. The majority of Salmon~dq~s Boston production was for his own account. Salmon, as we can see again from his catalogue, turned out small "cabinet pieces" in a matter of hours. They were extremely popular with the collecting public who bought them at his favorite sales venue-public auction. In 1830 one distinguished Bostonian was unable to resist the charm of a small Salmon. Charles Francis Adams, one of the most illustrious members of that family, a distinguished U.S. Statesman, and minister to Great Britain, tells in his August 5, 1830, diary entry how he acquired a Salmon: Having done all my usual duties at the office I thought I would go down to see how the pictures by Salmon would sell. They are all of them very pretty and went so very reasonably that I felt very much tempted to purchase. But I held in exceedingly well until the close, when one came up which I could not resist and immediately repented the act. But it was too late. Adams appended a footnote over a month later, on September 24: "My picture came home today and I was confirmed in my opinion of its merit." (John Wilmerding, robert salmon, painter of ship and shore, 1971, boston, p. 46).