Marine and landscape painter. Born in Wilmington, Delaware on July 15, 1830. As a young man, Denny worked as a sailor of small craft on the Chesapeake Bay and his enthusiasm for ships never waned. Arriving in San Francisco with the Gold Rush in 1849, he worked as a teamster on the waterfront and was a member of the Vigilance Committee. After two years in California, he opted for an art career and then traveled to Milwaukee where he was a pupil of Samuel Marsden Brookes (1816-1892). After six years of study there, he returned to San Francisco and established a studio on Bush Street. When Brookes moved to San Francisco in 1862, the two friends shared the studio for many years.
Gideon Jacques Denny exhibited at the California Art Union in 1865 and the Mechanics' Institute Fairs of 1864 and 1871 where one of his marines was awarded a silver metal. Although he did do some portrait work his marine and landscapes were his main body of work. It was his paintings of the clippers and shipping activities of the San Francisco Bay that were to bring him success and fame. These views often include ship wrecks along the West Coast executed in a Turneresque manner with vaporous effects of smoke, steam and clouds. Using these effects in his landscapes of the Northern California terrain made his paintings very inspiring, creating views, vistas and movement that were unparalleled for his time.
He never married and remained a resident of San Francisco except for his visits to Hawaii, Canada, and South America. Denny died in Cambria, California on October 7, 1886. Upon his death a memorial exhibition of his works was held at the Society of California Pioneers.
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS:
Oakland Museum
Bohemian Club
LISTED: Benezit, v 3. p.497
Artists in California 1786-1940, v. 2, by Edan Milton Hughes
O' California! Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century California Landscapes and Observations, p. 259, illustrated, p. 51, by Vincent, Starr, Mills.
Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton
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