The following is from G.L. Davidson:

Robert Alexander Graham was one of three great uncles on my mother's side of the family. When I was about nine years old (1937 or 1938), my parents, a brother and I were vacationing in the Rocky Mountains when Uncle Rob invited us to visit his downtown Denver studio. It was a late evening visit and the first time I had ever been in a real artist's studio. It was a fascinating and romantic studio!

Uncle Rob made quite a production of displaying his paintings for the four of us that night. He slowly and carefully displayed each painting to perfection -- first preparing the "perfect" lighting, then placing the "perfect" frame around each painting.. Then he carefully placed the selected painting on an easel draped in black. All of this preparation took place before showing each work. I was greatly impressed. It was on that very special evening in Denver that I fell in love with Art.

In 1949, my parents purchased one of Rob's large floral oils as their wedding gift to my husband and me. Some years later, I purchased one of his large landscape oils and four small and rather unique oils -- one for each of my children -- from his earliest days as an artist. One member of the Graham clan owns large oil portraits Rob painted of his parents: Archie Graham and Christiana E. Brownlie. From time to time through the years, a number of Rob's relatives have been able to purchase a few of his paintings. We treasure them.

Note:
My name is Grace Lillian Lang Davidson; my mother was Agnes Christiana Graham Lang. Her father, Brownlie A. Graham, and Robert Alexander Graham were brothers; his other siblings, all male, were George, a doctor, and Andrew, an auditor.

Uncle Rob's only daughter, Gladys Graham Sherman, recently passed away in Modesto, California. She was the beautiful subject of some of his earlier works. I came across a very large painting (pastels) of Gladys as a young girl in a gallery in San Francisco in 1973. Gladys' three adult children still live in the West.

Graham, Robert Alexander
One oil painting of Robert A. Graham appeared in the 1995 June-July issue of The American Art Review
Magazine.
Title:
"Walk on the Hudson"
30 X 35
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The following is from R. Scott Sherman, Red Bluff CA

"Here is what I consider to be my grandfather's "official family genealogical and professional biography:"

ROBERT ALEXANDER GRAHAM

Robert Alexander Graham was born June 29, 1873 on the family farm in Brooklyn, Poweshiek County, Iowa, the second of four sons of Archie and Christian Elizabeth (Brownlie) Graham. He received his primary education there and then studied in Des Moines; at the Chicago Art Institute, and at the Art Students' League in New York City.

He was a pupil of DeCamp, John Carlson, Twachtman, George Bridgman, Robert Henri and, as a student, was awarded first prize scholarship for best drawing and painting in advanced life classes at the Art Students' League.

For thirteen years the artist maintained a studio in New Jersey and in Manhattan, and was represented in sixteen National Academy Exhibitions in New York City. He also exhibited at the Carnegie Institute; in international exhibitions in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and various exhibitions in Washington, D.C., St. Louis, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Rochester, NY, the Chicago Art Institute, in Boulder, Colorado Springs and Denver, Colorado.

Mr. Graham was a member of the New York Water Color Club, the Salmagundi Art Club of New York City, and a charter member of the Denver Art Guild.

After coming to Denver in 1920, the artist made a name for himself as a leader in the art life of the community. He taught drawing and painting for two years at the Denver Academy of Applied Art, at the Cory Art school, and then for twenty-one years devoted himself to private classes in painting, drawing and outdoor sketching. He was a member of the Civitan club and a charter member of the Denver Art Guild as well as an elder of the Central Christian church of Denver.

His paintings are owned mainly by private individuals and collectors in the east, midwest and pacific coast.[notably California during the last decade of the 20th Century.]

Mr. Graham died August 19, 1946 [age 73] in a San Francisco area nursing home, survived by his daughter, Gladys Fraser (Graham) Sherman [1902-2000] and three grandchildren.

Born in Brooklyn, IA on June 29, 1873. Graham studied at the AIC, ASL in NYC, and with Twachtman, Henri, Bridgman, and DeCamp. During the WWI years he lived in Haworth, NJ while making trips to the West in search of subject matter. In 1920 he settled in Denver, CO where he taught at the Denver Academy of Applied Art and privately. During his career he made many painting excursions to California and in 1943 moved to San Francisco where he remained until his death on Aug. 19, 1946. His work includes figure studies and landscapes. Member: NY WC Society; Salmagundi Club; Denver Art Guild. In: Oakland Museum.