Samuel Isham

Samuel Isham was born in New York City on May 12, 1855.{{cite book |title=American Ancestry: Embracing lineages from the whole of the United States. 1888-1898. Ed. by Frank Munsell |date=1888 |publisher=J. Munsell's Sons |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanancestry06hugh/page/28 28]-29 |url=https://archive.org/details/americanancestry06hugh |accessdate=30 April 2019 |language=en}} He was the son of William Bradley Isham (1827–1909) and Julia Burhans (1827–1907).{{cite news |title=WILLIAM B. ISHAM |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31115492/william_b_isham/ |accessdate=30 April 2019 |work=New-York Tribune |date=24 Mar 1909 |page=7 |language=en}} His father was a leather merchant who owned downtown factories and warehouses on Gold and Cliff Streets, and became vice-president of the Bank of the Metropolis and the president of the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company.[http://myinwood.net/history-of-inwoods-isham-park/ "History of Inwood's Ishham Park"] My Inwood Among his siblings was Charles Bradford Isham, who married Mamie Lincoln (granddaughter of Abraham Lincoln); and Julia Isham,{{cite news |title=MRS. H.O. TAYLOR, CITY'S BENEFACTOR; Wife of Historian and Donor of Isham Park in Upper Manhattan Dies at 73 SHE AIDED MANY CAUSES Gave Prints to Metropolitan Museum--Had Been Generous to Harvard University |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/03/07/94686312.pdf |accessdate=1 May 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=7 March 1939}} who married historian Henry Osborn Taylor.{{cite news |title=WILL OF MRS. TAYLOR AIDS TWO COLLEGES; Harvard and Smith Get Residue After $100,000 Bequests |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1939/03/12/95763006.pdf |accessdate=1 May 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=12 March 1939}}{{cite news |title=Harvard Given $642,000 in Will of Julia Taylor |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31136093/harvard_given_642000_in_will_of_julia/ |accessdate=1 May 2019 |work=The Boston Globe |date=May 31, 1940 |page=11 |language=en}}

After preparing at Phillips Academy, he studied at Yale,{{cite book |last1=Yale University |title=Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University |date=1915 |publisher=Yale University |page=798 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y2w_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA798 |accessdate=3 May 2019 |language=en}} where he was a member of the third editorial board of The Yale Record,"Record Editors". The Yale Banner. New Haven: Thomas Penney and G. D. Pettee. 1877. p. 182. and graduated in 1875 with a B.F.A. degree.

After Yale, Isham traveled abroad for three years and then studied law at Columbia Law School, beginning in the fall of 1878, and was admitted to the bar. He began practicing in the office of Lord Day & Lord before forming a partnership with George E. Coney in 1881.

A few years later, however, Isham opted out of a career in law and turned to art. He again went abroad, studying painting in Paris at the Académie Julian from 1885 to 1887 under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre.

He exhibited at both Paris salons and at the larger American exhibitions. He was a member of the Art Jury at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in 1901, and became a member of the National Academy in 1906. At the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904, he won the silver medal. He was also a director of the Fine Arts Society and a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, both in New York City.

His most important achievement, however, was his History of American Painting in 1905,{{cite web |title=The History of American Painting / by Samuel Isham with twelve full-page photogravures and one hundred and twenty-one illustrations in the text. |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/05039062/ |website=www.loc.gov |publisher=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA |accessdate=3 May 2019}} the best work on the subject. It deserves high praise for its adequate treatment, sympathetic usually just appreciations, and pleasing style.{{cite book |last1=Morse |first1=Samuel F. B. |title=American Jupiter: Letters and Journals of Samuel F.B. Morse (Vol. I & II) |date=2014 |publisher=BIG BYTE BOOKS |page=302 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-zyACwAAQBAJ&pg=PT302 |accessdate=3 May 2019 |language=en}}

Isham, who did not marry and lived at 471 Park Avenue in Manhattan, was a member of the Maidstone Club (in East Hampton, New York), Ardsley Club (in Irvington, New York), the Metropolitan Club, the Players' Club, and the University Club of New York.

On June 12, 1914, Isham suffered from an aneurysm of the arteries and died on the Maidstone Club golf course in East Hampton.{{cite news |title=ARTIST DIES ON GOLF LINKS.; Samuel Isham Bursts an Artery at Maidstone Club -- His Career. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/06/13/101755247.pdf |accessdate=30 April 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=13 June 1914}} He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. After his death, his estate presented 236 Japanese color prints from his personal collection to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.{{cite news |title=Art Museum Gets Two New Pictures; |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/07/12/100166413.pdf |accessdate=3 May 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=12 July 1915}}

File:Samuel Isham - Portrait of an "Old Sea Captain" - 1915.87 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tiff|Portrait of an "Old Sea Captain", {{Circa|1890|1899}}

File:Samuel Isham - Girl in White with Hat - 14.257 - Indianapolis Museum of Art.jpg|Girl in White with Hat

File:Brooklyn Museum - The Lilac Kimono - Samuel Isham - overall.jpg|The Lilac Kimono, {{Circa|1895|1900}}

File:Samuel Isham - Wooded Landscape - 1915.1.1 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg|Wooded Landscape, {{Circa|1890|1899}}

File:Portrait of John Goddard Stearns Jr. by Samuel Isham c.1895.png|Portrait of John Goddard Stearns Jr. {{Circa|1895}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{find a Grave|127947992}}
• {{NIE}}
• [https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/51 The Lilac Kimono], by Isham ({{Circa|1895|1900}}) at the Brooklyn Museum.

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Category:1855 births

Category:1914 deaths

Category:Phillips Academy alumni

Category:Yale University alumni

Category:Columbia Law School alumni

Category:19th-century American painters

Category:American male painters

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:American non-fiction writers

Category:Painters from New York City

Category:19th-century American male artists

Category:20th-century American male artists

Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters