History of Naushon Station, (Dukes County) Massachusetts United States of America

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Robert Swain Gifford, painter, was born on Naushon island, Dukes county, Mass, Dec. 23, 1840: son of William A. and Anna (Bassett) Gifford; grandson of William Tillinghast and Mary (Robinson) Gifford of Rhode Island, and of Stephen and Mary (Phillippe) Eldridge of Massachusetts; and a direct descendant from William Gifford, a member of the grand inquest of Plymouth, Mass., in 1650. When a boy he removed with his father to New Bedford, Mass., where he studied with Albert Van Beest, the Dutch marine painter, and assisted that artist by drawing ships for his views. Subsequently he went to New York city with Van Beest, with whom he worked till 1864, when he opened a studio in Boston, Mass. In 1866 he removed his studio to New York city, and in 1897 was appointed professor of art and director at the Cooper institute. He made a sketching tour in Oregon and California in 1869, Europe in 1870, Algiers and the Sahara desert in 1874, and Brittany and southern France in 1875. In 1882 he travelled with the artists F. D. Millet and Edwin A. Abbey through Denmark and northern Europe in the interest of Harper & Brothers for their magazine. He was elected a member of the National academy of design in 1878, of the American society of painters in water-colors in 1866, and of the Society of American artists in 1877. He was also made a member of the American water-color society; of the New York etching club; of the British society of painter ethers, and of the International art jury at the Chicago exposition, 1893. He received a medal for "The Mosque of Mohammed Ali," hung at the Centennial exposition, Philadelphia, 1876; and also a third-class medal for "Near the Coast" at the Paris international exposition, 1889. On June 9, 1873, he was married to Frances Eliot of New Bedford, Mass., a painter of birds in landscape backgrounds and also an illustrator. Among his watercolors are: Deserted Whaler (1867); Day of the Sea Shore (1869); Block House at Eastport (1874); Venetian Companions (1876); and The Oasis of Filiach, Algeria (1877). Among his oil paintings are: Scenic at Manchester, Cape Ann (1867); Mount Hood (1870); Halting for Water and Passenger Boats on the Nile (1874); The Rossetti Garden (1875); The Borders of the Desert and New England Cedars (1877); Nonquitt Cliff (1882); New Zaandaam (1883); The Shores of Buzzard's Bay (1885); Kelp Gatherers (1896); and Cloud Shadows (1898). His Near the Coast won a prize of $2500 from the American art association in 1885 and was afterward purchased by the Metropolitan museum of art, New York city.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Naushon Station, (Dukes County) Massachusetts

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