author
Samuel Isham
1855–1914
Best remembered as a painter, teacher, and early historian of American art, this Gilded Age figure moved easily between the studio and the lecture hall. His writing helped shape how American painting was understood in the early 20th century.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in New York City in 1855 and dying in East Hampton in 1914, Samuel Isham built a career as an American portrait and figure painter while also becoming an important art writer and lecturer.
He studied painting seriously in the United States and in Paris, and his work was shown widely enough that he became part of the mainstream art world of his day. Alongside painting, he taught and lectured on art history and criticism, including at the National Academy of Design and Columbia University.
Isham is especially remembered for History of American Painting (1905), an early survey that helped give American art a fuller historical narrative. That mix of practicing artist and thoughtful historian makes him an unusually interesting figure for readers who like seeing how art is made, judged, and remembered.