Background
Thomas Birch was born in July 26, 1779, in England, the son of William Russell Birch.
Thomas Birch was born in July 26, 1779, in England, the son of William Russell Birch.
Thomas had his professional training at and near Philadelphia.
Birch’s companions on sketching tours were John Wesley Jarvis, afterward a distinguished portrait painter, and Samuel Seymour, who became an engraver and who served as draftsman with Capt. Long's expedition to the Yellowstone River. He was presumably responsible for many of the views of country seats published by W. Birch & Son. Birch likewise painted snow scenes, and in 1807 he visited the Capes of Delaware and began to do marine views. He was an exhibitor, in 1811, at the first annual exhibition of the Society of Artists, held at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
The War of 1812 turned Birch's attention to the artistic possibilities of the sea fight. Birch's first picture in this genre was his "Engagement of the Constitution and the Guerrière, " made for James Webster, a Philadelphia publisher. It is now at the Naval Academy, Annapolis. Subsequently Nicholas Biddle, afterward president of the United States Bank, commissioned Birch to do "The Wasp and the Frolic. " Then came "The United States and the Macedonian, " portrayals of Perry's victory on Lake Erie and McDonough's on Lake Champlain, and a succession of similar subjects which, as Dunlap wrote, "furnished employment to his pencil in the path he had chosen, and in which he stands unrivaled in our country. " Some of the best of the historical pictures of the Naval Monument (1816), to which Michele Felice Corn was a principal contributor, were after designs by Thomas Birch.
Birch was an honorary member of the National Academy of Design.
Quotes from others about the person
"Young Birch from infancy could sketch a little. To his father's discipline he preferred the instruction of nature, and studied on the banks of the Schuylkill. " - William Dunlap
"To him [Thomas Birch] the present generation is indebted for the many paintings in water color which he made of old country seats and historic buildings in the middle and southern colonies, and especially in and around Philadelphia. " - Anne Hollingsworth Wharton
"His first regular essays in this department [sea fight] were made at the commencement of the late war between his adopted and his native country. England was known as his country, but he felt as an American. The desperate fights which could lower the flag and the pride of the boasted mistress of the ocean were his chosen subjects. " - William Dunlap
Birch was married on June 1, 1802, to Ann Goodwin.