Nicholas Isaak Jr. (1944-2011) was a painter, print maker, and art conservator. He was born and raised in Manchester, NH, and since the late 1970s resided in Westmoreland and then Keene, NH. He was a graduate of Berwick Academy in Maine (1963), and received a BFA (1967) and an MFA (1969) from the Boston University School of Visual Arts.

Isaak’s father was an architect and watercolor painter, who fostered an interest in art in his children. At Berwick academy Isaak was encouraged further by his art teacher Elyot Henderson; and at Boston University he studied with the artists Walter Tandy Murch, Robert Gwathmey, Karl Fortess, and Conger Metcalf, who were mentors to him. He was a contemporary and friends with artists Winslow Meyers and Reginald Case. During that time he also honed his conservation skills by training and working with Oliver Brothers Fine Art Restoration and Conservation in Boston, a leading fine art restoration firm established in 1850.


Isaak’s quiet, atmospheric still lifes and landscapes are part of the permanent collections of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Western Illinois University, Boston University, and the Historical Society of Cheshire County, Keene, as well as numerous corporate and private collections. His works have been shown in exhibitions at the Maxwell Davidson Gallery and the Babcock Galleries in New York; the Gallery of Contemporary Art, Winston Salem, NC; the Dartmouth College Museum and Galleries; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; the New England College Art Gallery, Henniker; and the Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery, Keene, among others.

Among the numerous awards and prizes he received is the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in New York. In 1998 his painting Juniper Bushes was selected to be published in the book The Artist and the American Landscape by John Driscoll and Arnold Skolnick.

Isaak taught at Norfolk (Virginia) State College (1969-1972), was an assistant professor of art at the School of Visual Arts at Boston University (1972-77), and chair of the art department at Keene State College (1977-79). In 1979 he left teaching to pursue his personal work and conservation full time.

As a painting conservator he was in demand by the Northeast’s foremost institutions, galleries, appraisers, and private collectors of art, for his exceptional craftsmanship, superior judgment, attention to detail, and honesty. He was the conservator of the NH State House Art Collection and restored artwork for the Saint-Gaudens’ National Historic Site; NH State Library, NH Historical Society; the National Historic Trust in Lowell, MA; the Rochester, NH Opera House; Driscoll Babcock Galleries (and Babcock Galleries) in New York City; St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH; and the Fitchburg (MA) Museum, among others.

Some of his paintings and many of his etchings may be purchased. Inquire with Nicholas Isaak III, nick.isaak@gmail.com