Benjamin Russell

1804-1885

American (New Bedford, Massachusetts; Warren, Rhode Island)

Benjamin Russell was an American artist best known for his precise watercolors of whaling ships working in New England. Born into a wealthy family in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Russell began drawing and painting in his early 30s, after a few years working as a cooper aboard a whaling ship. Most of his work is perfectly scaled, resembling control drawings, and Russell's watercolors were some of the best views of the mid-19th century American whaling industry until photography became available in the 1890s. Russell began making lithographs in 1848, and began teaching art in Rhode Island after the American Civil War ended in 1865.