Charles Dorman Robinson

Early years Robinson was born in East Monmouth, Maine in 1847. He grew up in San Francisco after he moved with his family in 1850 at three years old. His father, the druggist Dr. David G. "Yankee" Robinson, established some of San Francisco's first theaters: The Dramatic Museum, in 1850; the Adelphi, in 1851; and the American in 1852. His mother was Mariette (née Dorman).

While in San Francisco, Robinson attended Union Grammar School (1854–61) and received his first art lessons from Charles Christian Nahl. He studied under Eugène Boudin for a year at the age of 19. He consulted with Samuel W. Griggs, Wallace Albert King, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Albert Bierstadt, and James Hamilton.

Career Early in his career, Robinson established his reputation as a professional painter after exhibiting marine paintings of the San Francisco Bay. In the 1860s and 1870s, he made painting trips through Central America and Mexico. By 1876, he had regular painting exhibits, the works influenced by the styles of Hudson River School and En plein air. His illustrations and writing were included in Overland Monthly and The Century Magazine. Robinson received art awards from the California State Agricultural Society in 1878; and he received the gold medal for best collection of paintings in the exhibit of 1902. He lost 30 years worth of his sketches and paintings in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.

Robinson was known for his seascapes and landscapes of Northern California. His paintings include, Ruins in Central America, 1870; Cyclorama of Yosemlte Valley, by , 1894; Burning of San Francisco, by , 1906; and Grand Canyon of Arizona, by . In 1892, assisted by five other well-established artists, Robinson began what would be one of the largest pictures ever painted in California, the Panorama of Yosemite. One of his paintings hangs in Buckingham Palace, Other collections of his work include the 1860 California Panorama at the Bancroft Library, while others are held by the Society of California Pioneers, Maritime Museum of San Francisco, Crocker Art Museum, the Bohemian Club, and the Nevada Museum of Art.

He married Kathryn Evelyn Wright, cousin of Elmer E. Ellsworth,

Partial works (1878), Argonaut sketch book : [of the] Mechanics' Fair, August, 1878 (1882), The Wawona hotel. An illustrated sketch of the sights and scenes around the Mariposa big trees station