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Fig. 1. Portrait of Samuel Colman from Appleton's Cyclopædia of
American Biography, Volume X, 1924, pages 418–4

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Colman (1832-1920)

Samuel Colman, Jr. (1832-1920) was an American Painter, writer, Coleman’s later fame came as an interior designer, through
interior designer, watercolorist, collector and philanthropist. Born his activities and collaboration with Louis Comfort Tiffany on
in Portland, Maine, he grew up in New York City, where his father the spectacular Fifth Avenue residence of Henry and Louisine
owned a bookstore. By 1950, he had exhibited his first painting at Havemeyer, and the interior of the Hartford residence of Samuel
the National Academy of Design and became an associate member Clemens, among others. He collected both Chinese and Japanese
of the Academy in 1854-55, and a full member in 1962. His early ceramics, a portion of which he and his wife gifted to The
work was highly influenced by Hudson River School artist Asher Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is also the author of two books,
B. Durand. One of Colman’s most famous works, and a landmark entitled Proportional Form, and Nature’s Harmonic Unity.
representative of Hudson River School art, is his Storm King on
the Hudson (Fig. 2) It now resides in the Smithsonian American Samuel Coleman was first married to Anne Lawrence Dunham
Art Museum in Washington, DC. Louis Comfort Tiffany became his (1832-1902) in Irvington, New York in 1862. She was the daughter of
student in the 1860’s while the painter lived in Irvington New York, Edward Wood Dunham, the President of Corn Exchange Bank, and
and a life-long friend and collaborator in his later years as an interior Maria Smyth (Parker) Dunham. After her death, he married Lillian
designer. Margaret Gaffney (1866-1954).

Mr. Colman traveled extensively in Europe in the 1860’s and 1870’s, Sources: Samuel Colman, Jr. (1832-1920) | White Mountain Art &
though primarily to France and Spain. In the 1870’s and 1880’s he Artists Samuel Colman | Smithsonian American Art Museum (si.edu)
visited much of the Western United States. During his European Samuel Colman - Wikipedia
sojourns, his pictures incorporated the architectural features and
environments he experienced. During the same period, he became
a founding member of the American Watercolor Society, and its
first president (1867-1871), and expanded his artistic repertoire to
encompass the art of etching, with his activities as a member of the
New York Etching Club.

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