Abbey's training as an illustrator began at age fourteen with drawing lessons under Isaac L. Williams, a Philadelphia landscape painter. In June 1868, he became an apprentice in illustration at the firm of Van Ingen and Snyder, and at the same time, began a year of night-class study with Christian Schuessele at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Moving to New York in 1871, Abbey obtained a position as an illustrator at Harper & Brothers, publishers, which he held into 1874, when he went out on his own.
The real turning point of his career came four years later when he sailed for England to research authentic backgrounds for his drawings illustrating the poems of Robert Herrick. Although Abbey made some half-dozen trips back to the United States, England was his home for the rest of his life.
His first oil painting to be shown at the Royal Academy appeared in 1890, and that year he received the important commission of a series of murals for the Boston Public Library, taking as his theme the Arthurian legend of the quest for the Holy Grail. It was a great honor for this novice painter as his fellow decorators were the well-established artists John Singer Sargent and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. His standing in his professional rose rapidly, however: Successful exhibitions of his work in the pastel medium took place in New York in 1895 and 1896. At this time he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1898 a full member of the English Academy.
The Holy Grail mural cycle was completed in 190l. Abbey then could accept a major commission from Harper's for drawings for their edition of Shakespeare's tragedies. The following year he agreed to paint the official coronation picture for Edward VII, and a mural cycle for the state capitol at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. These large murals occupied the rest of his career and remained unfinished at his death.
Years later, Abbey's widow made substantial gifts to the National Academy to establish programs, which bear his name, to support the teaching of mural painting and the commissioning of murals in the United States.
JD
