Gideon Jacques Denny (1830–1886) was a
marine artist who was born in
Wilmington, Delaware on July 15, 1830. As a young man, he worked on ships in the
Chesapeake Bay. He traveled to California in 1849 with the
Gold Rush. He worked as a teamster on the San Francisco docks and was a member of the
San Francisco Committee of Vigilance. After two years in California, he moved to
Milwaukee, where he studied painting with Samuel Marsden Brookes. After six years of study in Milwaukee, Denny returned to San Francisco and established a studio on Bush Street. In 1862, Brooks moved to San Francisco and shared a studio with Denny. In 1868, Denny spent two months in Hawaii visiting several islands. He is also known to have visited Canada and South America. Denny died of
malaria in
Cambria, California on Oct. 7, 1886.