Robert Isaacson

Early life An only child, Isaacson's personal fortune derived from his maternal grandmother, whose family found success in the fur trade; Isaacson spent early summers surrounded by aunts, uncles, and family retainers in his grandmother's ornate mansion in Leavenworth, Kansas. Despite an apparent reading disability, Isaacson was musically gifted; he was permitted to move alone at age sixteen from Saint Louis to New York City to study the harpsichord, although his only subsequent education in any organized sense was a summer at Black Mountain College. The couple visited Istanbul 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.

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. Charles Bargue, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Thomas Dewing, Jean-Léon Gérôme, 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 on 6 May 1999 to benefit a charitable foundation.