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7
Thomas Birch
(American, born England, 1779–1851)
English Setter, 1813
Oil on panel, 9 x 11 inches
Signed and dated at lower right: “T Birch/1813”
Inscribed in ink on canvas verso: “Painted by Thos Birch.1813. Phila.”
Provenance: Schwarz Gallery by 1992; private collection until 2003
Exhibited: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Third Annual
Exhibition (1813), no. 121
Illustrated: F. Turner Reuter, Jr., A History of American Animal and Sporting Art,
1750–1950 (Lanham, Md.: Derrydale Press, forthcoming)
Thomas Birch, son of the well-known enamelist, watercolorist, and engraver William Birch (1755–1834), was one of early
America’s most important marine artists and the founder of the Philadelphia tradition of marine painting. Born in England,
he came to the United States with his family when he was fifteen. Birch learned the technical skills of engraving from his
father, and in 1799 they published their widely known series of Philadelphia views. In addition to his father’s instruction,
the young artist was able to study paintings by important English and European artists that his father owned. In 1795
Thomas Birch entered two small watercolors in the Columbianum in Philadelphia, the first public art exhibition in the
United States. From 1812 to 1817 Birch was curator at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he exhibited
almost annually from 1811 until his death in 1851. Among his more famous students were George R. Bonfield
(1802–1898), Thomas Cole (1801–1848), and James Hamilton (1819–1878).
Although Birch is best known for his views of the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, his marine views of the mid-Atlantic and
New England coasts, and his ship portraits and naval battles, he also painted many landscapes that feature country houses
(the subject of another print series by the two Birches) or recreational activities such as sleighing (see plate 14) and hunting.
Dog portraits were an uncommon subject for American artists in the early nineteenth century, but a very popular one in the
Birches’ native England.