Thomas Sewell Robins (c. 1810 – 1880) was a British painter of maritime themes. Born in Devonport, Devon, he was an early member of the New Water-Colour Society and the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours.[1] He was admitted into the Royal Academy Schools on 22 April 1829 under the sponsorship of James Northcote, a former pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds. Sewell traveled extensively on the Continent, visiting France in 1842, Holland and Italy in 1845, the Mediterranean c. 1850, Holland and the Rhine in 1857, France in 1858, and Antwerp in 1859. Failing health forced him to reduce his commitments in 1865-6. He died 9 August 1880, leaving his wife Elizabeth and a daughter.
Robins specialized in coastal marine subjects, working primarily in watercolors. He did some paintings, particularly some large scale yachting scenes in the Solent. His work is the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Birmingham Art Gallery and Museum, the British Museum, the City of Portsmouth Museum, Cartwright Hall (Bradford), Howarth Museum and Gallery (Accrington), Newport Art Gallery, the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum (Birkenhead), and the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
One painting of his in the National Maritime Museum dates from 1853 and is of HMS Assistance moored in the Arctic ice.