Samuel Colman

Samuel Colman (Mar 4, 1832 - Mar 26, 1920) was an American painter, interior designer, and writer, probably best remembered for his paintings of the Hudson River.

Samuel Colman was an artist of many talents and allegiances whose career spanned a number of disparate art trends. He was one of the early members of the Hudson River School, as a student of Asher Durand. He became an Associate of the National Academy in 1855, and a full Member in 1862. He exhibited widely, and made study trips to Europe in 1860 and 1871. In the later years of his career he was also involved in Louis Comfort Tiffany’s early decorating partnership, beginning in about 1878. Colman’s fluency in exotic style was congenial to tastemakers, clients, and collectors in that period.

Born in Portland, Maine, Colman moved to New York City with his family as a child. His father opened a bookstore, attracting a literate clientele that may have influenced Colman's artistic development. He is believed to have studied briefly under the Hudson River school painter Asher Durand, and he exhibited his first work at the National Academy of Design in 1850. By 1854 he had opened his own New York City studio. The following year he was elected an associate member of the National Academy, with full membership bestowed in 1862.

His landscape paintings in the 1850s and 1860s were influenced by the Hudson River school, an example being Meadows and Wildflowers at Conway (1856) now in the collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College. He was also able to paint in a romantic style, which had become more fashionable after the Civil War. One of his best-known 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 American Art Museum in Washington, DC.

Colman was an inveterate traveler, and many of his works depict scenes from foreign cities and ports. He made his first trip abroad to France and Spain in 1860–1861, and returned for a more extensive four-year European tour in the early 1870s in which he spent much time in Mediterranean locales. Colman often depicted the architectural features he encountered on his travels: cityscapes, castles, bridges, arches, and aqueducts feature prominently in his paintings of foreign scenes. In 1870 and again in the 1880s he journeyed to the western United States, painting western landscapes comparable in scope and style to those of Thomas Moran.

In the aftermath of the Civil War, watercolor painting became more popular. In 1866, Colman was one of the founders of the American Watercolor Society, and he became its first president[1] from 1867 to 1871. Colman also became skilled at the medium of etching. He was an early member of the New York Etching Club, and published popular etchings depicting European scenes.

Colman's artistic activities became even more diverse late in life. By the 1880s he worked extensively as an interior designer, collaborating with his friend Louis Comfort Tiffany on the design of Samuel Clemens' Hartford home, and later on the Fifth Avenue home of Henry and Louisine Havemeyer.[2] He also became a major collector of Asian decorative objects, and wrote two books on geometry and art.

Colman died in New York City in 1920.

Works:
Hudson River from Irvington
In painting this long view from the John Williams estate, Strawberry Hill, Colman took advantage of the topography along the Hudson in Westchester, with its strong pattern of north and south hills. From northern Irvington up to and past Croton, we see a rural area full of beautiful nature and pastoral animals left to roam through the county’s many farms and estates. The adventurous Colman painted from the American West to Morocco but he lived in Irvington in the 1860s and returned to the subject of the Hudson throughout his career.

Arab Caravansary, Tlemcen, Algeria
Frederick Billings purchased this painting at the National Academy of Design in New York in May 1879, the same occasion on which he acquired Nicoll’s Maine Coast.

Moroccan Courtyard
Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Paul William Garber and Philip C. Garber, Class of 1956 Harvard Art Museums

Certaldo, June 6th, '61
Certaldo, a small town south of Florence, is known as the birthplace of Giovanni Boccaccio, the 14th-century poet.
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