Footnotes

Provenance
Anon. sale, Christie's, New York, 3 February 2005, lot 199.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

The American author John Wilmerding sub-titled his magisterial biography of Robert Salmon as a "Painter of Ship and Shore", and the fine view offered in this catalogue is a typical composition by the artist which incorporates both elements. Likewise, when the painting was seen by the late A. S. 'Sam' Davidson, he too described it with his usual perception and commented as follows:-

"Depicting the distant Liverpool waterfront across a wide estuary poses problems of composition. At this period, when Wallasey was undeveloped, an attractive solution was to view it obliquely as seen from the north-west, including part of the unspoiled Wallasey foreshore as foreground. Beached vessels on the right of the painting not only enhanced the nautical flavour, but helped 'frame' the distant panorama. As in this instance, human interest was often imparted by passengers wading or being conveyed ashore from a ferry in the foreground. The mouth of the Mersey lies off the painting to the left. Its broad upper reaches are visible between the masts of the small boat athwart the bluff bows of the Dutch ketch on the right. In the middle distance on the left of the painting, a British ship is seen in port quarter view. Most unusually for Salmon the vessel is identifiable....", and has the name Liverpool emblazoned across her stern.

The Lloyd's Register (of Shipping) for 1810 contains only one vessel of this name, a full-rigged three-master of 315 tons built in Philadelphia in 1804. Commanded (in 1810) by Captain Bryan, she made regular crossings between Philadelphia and Liverpool although, by 1812, she was trading out of Liverpool to the Baltic. Later still, in 1818, she was sailing to Savannah and is probably the same vessel recorded as being wrecked in the Shannon estuary, Ireland, on 8th November 1825.

In 1810, Liverpool was the principal entry port for trade with North America and the plethora of shipping the city attracted meant the inevitable birth of an entire 'school' of marine artists.