Featured Artist in Collection

Born in Maine, Charles Dorman Robinson’s parents moved to California in 1850 when he was three years old, and he grew up in San Francisco. At thirteen he was awarded a diploma by the Mechanics’ Institute for best marine drawing. He was recognized as a first-rate marine painter in 1878, when he won all the prizes at the Sacramento State Fair. In the 1870’s, new ideas from Europe were being introduced. One of these was the plein air technique that gave artists the freedom to explore the atmospheric effects of light and color. Robinson was in Paris for the 1900 Exposition, where one of his paintings was purchased by a British noble. It was late presented to Queen Victoria, who hung the picture in Buckingham Palace. Tragically, many of Robinson’s works were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco fire, and in a 1921 fire at his Laguna Street home that took more than twenty years of his Yosemite paintings. Robinson, together with Jules Tavernier, was co-founder of the Palette Club in San Francisco.