Painter, printmaker and writer Samuel Colman was born in Portland, Maine. He moved to New York City as a child, and was tghought to have studied for a time under Asher B. Durand, of Hudson River school fame. Colman exhibited for the first time at the National Academy of Design in 1850, and established his studio in New York four years later. In 1855, he was elected an Associate Member of the National Academy, and attained full membership in 1862.

His paintings throughout the 1850s and 1860s were strongly influenced by the Hudson River School as well as by his extensive travels throughout southern Europe and the Middle East. In the following two decades, Colman traveled extensively through the American West, working in watercolors as well as in oils. He was a founder and the first President of the American Watercolor Society, and in the 1870s became a skilled etcher. He died in New York City.