Against his father’s wishes, Sandham pursued a career as an artist, working first in a photography studio in Montreal retouching photographic portraits.  Sandham’s earliest pictures were primarily portraits, but by 1870 he was painting landscapes, particularly marine scenes of the St. Lawrence River, and received formal instruction from painters O.R. Jacovi and Adolph Vogt.  In 1865, he married writer Agnes A. Fraser.

In 1880, Sandham was chosen as one of the first members of the Royal Canadian Academy.  That year he toured England and France, and in 1881 moved to Boston to complete several portrait commissions.  He intended to visit for only a few weeks, but instead opened a studio at the Hotel Van Rensselaer and stayed for nearly twenty years.  In addition to painting he worked as an illustrator for publications such as Picturesque Canada, Century Magazine and The Art Amateur.

Sandham is best remembered for his rugged hunting and fishing scenes set in Canada and Maine.  He was a member of the Copley Society, the Paint and Clay Club, the Boston Society of Water Color Painters and the Boston Art Club.  He received a medal at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876, and exhibited frequently at the Boston Art Club between 1881 and 1901, when he moved to London. 

References: See Boston City Directories 1855-1925.; Frank T. Robinson, Living New England Artists (Boston: Samuel E. Cassino, 1888).; Janice H. Chadbourne, Karl Gabosh and Charles O. Vogel, The Boston Art Club: Exhibition Record 1873-1909 (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1991).; Who Was Who In American Art (1999).; Will Jenkins, “Canadian Artist in the Azores: H. Sandham, R.C.A.” International Studio. 37: 1903, 173-176.  33221