Charles Dorman Robinson (alternate: Charles Dormon Robinson; nickname: C.D.) (July 17, 1847 - May 8, 1933) was an American

panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

cyclorama A cyclorama is a panoramic image on the inside of a cylindrical platform, designed to give viewers standing in the middle of the cylinder a 360° view, and also a building designed to show a panoramic image. The intended effect is to make view ...

, landscape, and marine painter. He is known for his seascapes and landscapes of Northern California, including over a hundred paintings of

Yosemite Valley Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California, United States. The valley is about long a ...

. He was known as "the dean of Pacific Coast artists".

Early years

Robinson was born in East Monmouth, Maine in 1847. He grew up in San Francisco after he moved with his family in 1850 at three years old. His father, the druggist Dr. David G. "Yankee" Robinson, established some of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

's first theaters: The Dramatic Museum, in 1850; the Adelphi, in 1851; and the American in 1852. His mother was Mariette (née Dorman). Both of his parents' families were

Colonialists Colonialism is the control of another territory, natural resources and people by a foreign group. Colonizers control the political and tribal power of the colonised territory. While frequently an imperialist project, colonialism can also take ...

; the Dormans were English army people and the Robinsons were Puritans. While in San Francisco, Robinson attended Union Grammar School (1854–61) and received his first art lessons from Charles Christian Nahl. After his father disappeared, Robinson moved to Vermont with his mother where he attended North Troy Higher Academy (1861–64). In art, he was a student of William Bradford, 1862, Boston;

George Inness George Inness (May 1, 1825 – August 3, 1894) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter. Now recognized as one of the most influential American artists of the nineteenth century, Inness was influenced by the Hudson River Schoo ...

, Boston, 1862-3; Mauritz de Haas and Régis François Gignoux, New York. He studied under

Eugène Boudin Eugène Louis Boudin (; 12 July 1824 – 8 August 1898) was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors. Boudin was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores. His pastels, ...

for a year at the age of 19. He consulted with Samuel W. Griggs, Wallace Albert King, Jasper Francis Cropsey,

Albert Bierstadt Albert Bierstadt (January 7, 1830 – February 18, 1902) was a German American painter best known for his lavish, sweeping landscapes of the American West. He joined several journeys of the Westward Expansion to paint the scenes. He was no ...

, and

James Hamilton James Hamilton may refer to: Dukes *James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton (1606–1649), heir to the throne of Scotland *James Hamilton, 4th Duke of Hamilton (1658–1712), Scottish nobleman *James Hamilton, 5th Duke of Hamilton (1703–1743), Sco ...

Career

Early in his career, Robinson established his reputation as a professional painter after exhibiting marine paintings of the

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

. In the 1860s and 1870s, he made painting trips through Central America and Mexico. By 1876, he had regular painting exhibits, the works influenced by the styles of

Hudson River School The Hudson River School was a mid-19th-century American art movement embodied by a group of landscape painters whose aesthetic vision was influenced by Romanticism. Early on, the paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the sur ...

and

En plein air ''En plein air'' (; French language, French for 'outdoors'), or plein-air painting, is the act of painting outdoors. This method contrasts with studio painting or academic rules that might create a predetermined look. The theory of 'En plein ai ...

. His illustrations and writing were included in ''

Overland Monthly The ''Overland Monthly'' was a monthly literary magazine, literary and cultural magazine, based in California, United States. It was founded in 1868 and published between the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th centu ...

'' and ''

The Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associati ...

''. Robinson received art awards from the California State Agricultural Society in 1878; and he received the gold medal for best collection of paintings in the exhibit of 1902. He lost 30 years worth of his sketches and paintings in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. Robinson was known for his seascapes and landscapes of

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

. His paintings include, ''Ruins in Central America'', 1870; ''Cyclorama of Yosemlte Valley'', by , 1894; ''Burning of San Francisco'', by , 1906; and ''Grand Canyon of Arizona'', by . In 1892, assisted by five other well-established artists, Robinson began what would be one of the largest pictures ever painted in California, the ''Panorama of Yosemite''. One of his paintings hangs in

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

, 67 of his paintings are in Great Britain; his paintings were presented to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

and to King

Prajadhipok Prajadhipok (8 November 1893 – 30 May 1941) was the seventh king of Siam from the Chakri dynasty, titled Rama VII. His reign was a turbulent time for Siam due to political and social changes during the 1932 Siamese revolution. He i ...

Siam Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. An untitled seascape and ''The Wet Sand'' are part of the collection at the

Oakland Museum Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major West Coast port, Oakland is ...

. Other collections of his work include the 1860 ''California Panorama'' at the

Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library is the primary special-collections library of the University of California, Berkeley. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retain the name Bancroft Library in perpetuity. ...

, while others are held by the Society of California Pioneers, Maritime Museum of San Francisco,

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

, the

Bohemian Club The Bohemian Club is a private club with two locations: a city clubhouse in the Nob Hill district of San Francisco, California, and the Bohemian Grove, a retreat north of the city in Sonoma County. Founded in 1872 from a regular meeting of jour ...

, and the

Nevada Museum of Art The Nevada Museum of Art, is an art museum in Reno, Nevada. Located at 160 West Liberty Street in Reno, it is the only American Alliance of Museums (AAM) accredited art museum in the state of Nevada. The museum has chosen a thematic approach, pl ...

. A 1921 home fire destroyed many of his California paintings. Robinson served as President of the Palette Club of San Francisco; and Dean of the Artists of California, since 1906. He was a member of the Bohemian Club and the

San Francisco Art Association The San Francisco Art Association (SFAA) was an organization that promoted California artists, held art exhibitions, published a periodical, and established the first art school west of Chicago. The SFAA – which, by 1961, completed a long sequen ...

Personal life

He married Kathryn Evelyn Wright, cousin of Elmer E. Ellsworth, in 1874 in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, and they moved to

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

the next year. Since 1876 he made his home in San Rafael and had an office on

Montgomery Street Montgomery Street is a north-south thoroughfare in San Francisco, California, in the United States. It runs about 16 blocks from the residential Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, Telegraph Hill neighborhood south through downtown San Francisco, ...

in San Francisco. Starting in 1880,

Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is a national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service ...

was his summer residence for the next 24 years; and he resided in Paris during the 1900 Exposition. He died at his San Rafael home in 1933. He had at least one child, a daughter, Lillian.

Partial works

* (1878), ''Argonaut sketch book : f theMechanics' Fair, August, 1878'' * (1882), ''The Wawona hotel. An illustrated sketch of the sights and scenes around the Mariposa big trees station''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Charles Dormon 1847 births 1933 deaths People from Monmouth, Maine American landscape painters People from San Rafael, California Artists from Marin County, California Yosemite National Park Painters from San Francisco 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists 19th-century American male artists