Robert Isaacson was a collector, scholar, and art dealer eulogized upon his death as "the Berenson of nineteenth century academic studies."
Robert Isaacson owned Jean-Léon Gérôme's "Solomon's Wall, Jerusalem (The Wailing Wall)" for two decades; the circa 1875 canvas was sold at Christie's in May 1999 for $2,312,500, establishing what was then a record price for the artist.
James Ingram Merrill was an American poet. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1977 for Divine Comedies. His poetry falls into two distinct bodies of work: the polished and formalist lyric poetry of his early career, and the epic narrative of occult communication with spirits and angels, titled The Changing Light at Sandover, which dominated his later career. Although most of his published work was poetry, he also wrote essays, fiction, and plays.
Merrill in 1973
James Merrill and David Jackson in Athens, Greece, October 1973 (photo: Judith Moffett)
James Merrill with actor Peter Hooten, his partner from 1983 to 1995 (photo: Judith Moffett)
The cover of The Changing Light at Sandover, a 560-page epic poem published in 1982, shows the ballroom of "The Orchard," James Merrill's childhood home in The Hamptons in the 1930s.
