1000 Museums

Benjamin Russell (1804-1885) was an American painter known for his nautical paintings and watercolors. Russell spent his youth in New Bedford, Massachusetts. His father was a whaler, so Russell would always be influenced by the sea. He would not become an artist until he was in his thirties. Before this, Russell was a sailor known for sketching what he saw during his journeys. His most famous work is “Whaling Voyage Around the World” 1848, which he did in collaboration with the artist Caleb P. Purrington. Russell’s style of working was controlled and flat. He painted ships primarily but also landscapes and cartoons. Around 1848, he switched to making lithographs, and after the Civil War, he was an art teacher in Rhode Island. Benjamin Russell died in 1885.