Samuel Colman (1832-1920)

He was born at Portland, Maine, but grew up in New York City where his father had a well-known shop on Broadway selling books and prints. It is thought that Colman first studied under Asher Durand and by 1854 he had opened his own studio in New York. He became a well-known and popular landscape artist, influenced by the Hudson River School. In 1867, he co-founded and became the first President of the American Watercolor Society, and he was also an early member of the New York Etching Club. He travelled extensively in the American West and Europe, including taking a 4-year tour of the Mediterranean and North Africa in the early 1870s. He became a significant collector and connoisseur of Oriental art and in the 1880s went into business with Louis Comfort Tiffany as an interior designer specializing in fabrics and wallpapers. In addition, he wrote two books on geometry and its relationship with art: "Nature's Harmonic Unity" and "Proportional Form". From 1883 to 1895, he lived predominantly year-round at his McKim, Mead & White designed cottage in Newport, Boxcroft. He was married twice: (1) In 1862, to Ann Lawrence Dunham, daughter of the 1st President of the Corn Exchange Bank (2) In 1903, to Lillian Margaret Gaffney, by whom he had one son, William.