Samuel Colman (March 4, 1832 - March 26, 1920) is an American painter, interior designer and writer, probably best remembered for his painting of the Hudson River.
Video Samuel Colman
Biography
Born in Portland, Maine, Colman moved to New York City with his family as a child. His father opened a bookstore, attracted educated customers who might 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. In 1854 he opened his own New York studio. The following year he was elected as a member of the National Academy association, with full membership granted in 1862.
The landscape paintings of the 1850s and 1860s were influenced by the Hudson River schools, for example the Meadows and Wildflowers in Conway (1856) now in the collection of the Frances Lehman Loeb Arts Center at Vassar College. He can also paint in a romantic style, which became more fashionable after the Civil War. One of his most famous works, and one of the iconic images of the Hudson River School art, is his "Storm King on the Hudson" (1866), now in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection in Washington. , DC.
Colman is a common traveler, and many of his works portray the landscape of 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 where he spent much time in the Mediterranean region. Colman often describes the architectural features he encountered in his travels: the city's sights, palaces, bridges, arches, and waterways that stand out in his paintings of foreign landscapes. In 1870 and again in the 1880s he traveled to the western United States, painting comparable western landscapes in scope and style for the Thomas Moran people.
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 the first president from 1867 to 1871. Colman also became skilled in etching media. He is an early member of the New York Etching Club, and publishes a popular etch that depicts European scenes.
Colman's artistic activity became more diverse in the end of his life. In the 1880s he worked extensively as an interior designer, collaborating with his friend Louis Comfort Tiffany at the Hartford Clemens design house in Hartford, and later at Fifth Avenue Henry and Louisine Havemeyer homes. He also became a major collector of Asian decorative objects, and wrote two books on geometry and art, one of which is titled The Harmonious Unity of Nature , the other being titled Proportional Form .
Colman died in New York City in 1920.
Maps Samuel Colman
See also
- List of Hudson River School artists
- Thomas Cole
- Frederik Macody Lund
- In Divine Proportion
References
- History of the American Watercolor Society. Retrieved June 1, 2005.
Note
External links
- American Paradise: World of the Hudson River School, an exhibit catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), containing material about Colman (see index)
- The Hudson River School Vision: Sanford R. Gifford landscape, exhibit catalog from the Metropolitan Art Museum (available online entirely as PDF), containing material about Colman (see index)
- Natural Harmonic Unity at Archive.org
- Form Proportional at Archive.org
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments