Richard Sumner Meryman (American, 1881-1963) was a member of the Dublin, New Hampshire, artists' colony, which flourished at the foot of Mount Monadnock in the early 20th century. Born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, he was a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, when he traveled to Dublin in 1906 to work for artist Abbott Handerson Thayer. Meryman became part of Thayer's inner circle and kept a home in Dublin for the rest of his life. He became a portrait painter, receiving commissions from many members of Dublin society, including Robb Sagendorph, founder of Yankee magazine and his wife, Beatrix Sagendorph, founder of the Thorne-Sagendorph Gallery (Keene State College, Keene New Hampshire).

Meryman also painted many dignitaries' portraits while director of the art school at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. He painted university presidents, generals and admirals, the Secretary of the Navy, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, a Senator from Tennessee and President Coolidge's son. By 1935, modernism had permeated the art world, and Meryman's tradition of 19th-century realism was no longer the training students desired. At this time, he returned to live year-round in Dublin, where he sold landscapes from his studio. He also ran an art school in town with painter Alexander James. However, he continued to receive portrait commissions and became New Hampshire's official portraitist, painting many former governors including Sherman Adams, who became President Eisenhower's Chief of Staff.

Meryman was an important, but lesser known, member of the Dublin Art Colony. He refused to advance himself in the art world, blaming art dealers for promoting abstract art. He had only one formal exhibition of his work in 1951, which he organized himself in a Dublin barn.