Robert Isaacson (1 September 1927,

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

– 5 November 1998,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

) was a collector, scholar, and art dealer eulogized upon his death as "the Berenson of nineteenth century academic studies."Draper, James David (biographical essay). ''The Age of Elegance & Barbizon, Realist and French Landscape Paintings Including Important Paintings from the Collection of Robert Isaacson - Christie's, New York - 6 May 1999 - Sale #9152/9202'', Christie's New York, Thursday 6 May 1999.

Early life

An only child, Isaacson's personal fortune derived from his maternal grandmother, whose family found success in the

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

; Isaacson spent early summers surrounded by aunts, uncles, and family retainers in his grandmother's ornate mansion in

Leavenworth, Kansas Leavenworth () is the county seat and largest city of Leavenworth County, Kansas, Leavenworth County, Kansas, United States. Part of the Kansas City metropolitan area, Leavenworth is located on the west bank of the Missouri River, on the site o ...

. Despite an apparent reading disability, Isaacson was musically gifted; he was permitted to move alone at age sixteen from Saint Louis to

to study the harpsichord, although his only subsequent education in any organized sense was a summer at Black Mountain College. Isaacson spent several years in post-war

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

and

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

exploring churches and museums, developing a formidable and deeply intuitive understanding of painting, drawing, and the evolution of artistic temperament. In Rome in the early 1950s, Isaacson dated the poet James Merrill, who wrote candidly about their relationship in his 1993 memoir, ''A Different Person''.Merrill, James. ''A Different Person: A Memoir''. New York: Alfred P. Knopf, 1993. The couple visited

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

together—the visit proved a formative experience in Merrill's career—and the two men remained close friends until the poet's death in 1995.Merrill, op. cit., Chapter XIX, pp. 233–45: "It had been a folly to dream of seeing Istanbul in two days, yet a brief impression was better than none ..

Career

Upon Isaacson's return to New York, he became an art dealer almost by accident, taking on Edwin Hewitt's gallery at the request of mutual friend Lincoln Kirstein. Although the Robert Isaacson Gallery, located at 22 East 66th Street, represented the estate of Elie Nadelman and championed Magic Realist painters (including his favorite, George Tooker), Isaacson's growing interest and fascination with nineteenth century academic painting, an extremely unfashionable pursuit in the 1950s, would in time make him the paradigm of the scholarly dealer: his opinions and near-encyclopedic knowledge of the once-obscure field were sought long after the Robert Isaacson Gallery shut its doors (around 1970) and Isaacson began devoting himself full-time to curating and collecting. Isaacson played an important role in helping rehabilitate the reputations of

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema ( ; born Lourens Alma Tadema, ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom, becoming the last officially recognised Denization, denizen in 1873. Born in ...

,''An Exhibition to Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1836-1912''. New York: Robert Isaacson Gallery, 1962. Charles Bargue,

William-Adolphe Bouguereau William-Adolphe Bouguereau (; 30 November 1825 – 19 August 1905) was a French Academic art, academic painter. In his realistic genre paintings, he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of Classicism, classical subjects, with a ...

,Isaacson, Robert. ''William-Adolphe Bouguereau (catalogue)''. New York Cultural Center and Farleigh Dickinson, 1974. Thomas Dewing,

Jean-Léon Gérôme Jean-Léon Gérôme (; 11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academic painting, academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living art ...

,Isaacson, Robert. ''Jean-Léon Gérôme and his pupils.'' Poughkeepsie, New York: Vassar College Art Library, 1967. Albert Joseph Moore, Mihály Munkácsy and Gaston La Touche, among others. In keeping with Isaacson's will, thirteen important paintings from his collection (including five Gérômes) were auctioned by

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

on 6 May 1999 to benefit a charitable foundation. Records for the Robert Isaacson Gallery (1952–67), Hewitt Gallery, Durlacher Bros. and related business and exhibition papers are on deposit with the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

.Smithsonian Institution Libraries
Robert Isaacson search
accessed 25 May 2013.Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Art
Robert Isaacson Gallery Records, 1952–1967
accessed 25 May 2013.New York Times

8 November 1998, accessed 25 May 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isaacson, Robert 1927 births 1998 deaths American art collectors American art dealers Businesspeople from St. Louis 20th-century American businesspeople