Samuel Colman
Samuel Colman (born March 4, 1832 in Portland , Maine , USA , † March 26, 1920 in New York City , New York ) was an American painter , interior designer and writer, best known for his portraits of the Hudson River .
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Early works
Born in Portland, Maine, Colman moved his family to New York City as a child. His father opened a bookstore there and attracted an educated clientele who may have influenced Colman's artistic development. He is believed to have briefly studied under the Hudson River painter Asher Brown Durand , and he exhibited his first work at the National Academy of Design in 1850. By 1854 he had opened his own studio in New York City. In 1862 he was elected a member ( NA ) of the National Academy of Design in New York .
1850 to 1860
His landscapes in the 50s and 60s of the 19th century were influenced by the Hudson River School , as the picture Meadows and Wildflowers at Conway (1856) shows. It is now located at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He was also able to paint in a romantic way that had become more modern after the Civil War. One of his most famous works, and one of the iconic images of Hudson River School art, is His Storm King on the Hudson (1866), now in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC.
to travel
Colman was a travel lover, and much of his works depicted scenes from foreign cities and voyages. He painted his first trip abroad to France and Spain, and returned for an extensive four year trip in 1870, during which he spent much time in the Mediterranean locales . Colman often depicted the architectural features that he encountered on his travel destinations: castles, bridges, arches and aqueducts prominently mark the strange scenes in his pictures. In 1870 and 1880 he traveled to the western United States and painted western landscapes comparable in area and style to those of the Hudson River painter Thomas Moran .
In the post-war period, watercolor paintings became more popular. Colman was one of the founders of the American Watercolor Society, which opened in 1866, and became its first president from 1867 to 1871. Colman was also skilled at etching. He was an early member of the New York Etching Association and popular etchings appeared depicting European scenes.
Other activities
Colman's artistic activities became diverse late in life. In 1880 he worked largely as an interior designer, collaborating with his friend Luis Tiffany on the design of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (better known by his stage name Mark Twain ). He also became a major collector of Asian objects and wrote two books on geometry and art.
Colman died in New York City in 1920.
Individual evidence
- ↑ nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "C" / Colman, Samuel NA 1862 ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on June 19, 2015)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Colman, Samuel |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American painter and interior designer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 4, 1832 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Portland , Maine , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 26, 1920 |
| Place of death | New York City , New York |