The son of a wealthy merchant, Samuel Isham was educated at the Phillips Academy, Andover, MA and at Yale University, graduating in 1875. While at college, he studied drawing under Professor John H. Niemayer, a former student of Louis Jacquesson de la Chevreuse. It was probably advice from Niemayer which prompted Isham to choose Jacquesson de la Chevreuse as his master when he studied in Paris for the three years following his graduation. Upon returning to New York, he entered the Columbia University Law School, receiving his degree in 1880. His law practice lasted some five years, until partial deafness led him to give up his career. After a second student period in Paris (two years at the Acad‚mie Julian), he returned to New York in 1887 to work as a professional artist.
Isham moved into the Sherwood Studio Building and became involved with the young group of foreign-trained artists living there. In 1891 he was elected to the Society of American Artists, and he served as its treasurer from 1894 until its 1906 merger with the National Academy, a move he helped negotiate. Never a prolific artist, Isham painted figure studies and landscapes, moving toward portraiture in his later life. Sales do not seem to have concerned him, as he no doubt lived comfortably on the one million dollars inherited from his father in 1909 (and probably received support before his father's death as well).
Today, Isham is best remembered as author of his History of American Painting, published in 1905 and said to have been written in Paris. He was also known as a lecturer, giving talks on art history and criticism in the Academy Schools and at Columbia University between 1900 and 1909. Around 35 canvases remained in his studio after his death. Isham's sister, Julia, distributed these to museums and gave his books and drawings to the National Academy of Design. Over 200 Japanese woodblock prints were donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In his obituary read into the Minutes, his Academy colleagues noted his patience in living with the isolation of deafness: "The uncomplaining manner in which he bore an infirmity that must have been peculiarly trying to one of his genial temperament, bordered on the heroic."
