[3] Upon his return, he began his career as a businessman but turned a significant portion of his energies to painting, studying under famed artist and portrait painter[4] Minor C.

The following year he was elected an honorary professional member in the prestigious National Academy of Design, which granted him full membership in 1861.

[8] The posthumous sale of his estate revealed that he owned works by "old masters such as Rembrandt, Dürer, Ostade, and Raphael and contemporaries including Rosa Bonheur, Ary Scheffer, and George Caleb Bingham.

"[9] In his will,[10] he left $50,000 (equivalent to $995,217 today) to the National Academy along with his collection of 92 paintings including works by Frederick E. Church, John F. Kensett, Charles Edouard Frère, and Andreas Achenbach.

Using his familiarity with science, Suydam reduced nature to calm, clean, planar forms, and then distorted proportional relations so that God's creations loomed superior over the work of man.