TitleSamuel Isham
Artist
Kenyon Cox
(American, 1856 - 1919)
Date1901
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 30 × 25 in.
SignedSigned upper right: "Kenyon Cox - Jan - 9th 1901 - / Portrait of Samuel Isham. A N A."
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, February 4, 1901
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number291-P
Label TextCox and Isham, friends who had traveled together in Europe, were elected Associates at the same Academy meeting in 1900. Early in 1901 they decided to paint each other's diploma portrait. Both works were presented and accepted by the Council at the February 4, 1901, meeting. Isham greatly appreciated the nude studies of Cox and strongly defended them in his History of American Painting (1905). The seated painter occupies the lower-right corner and is balanced by a depiction of a partially draped woman that hangs on the wall at left.
