Horace W. Robbins attended college in Baltimore. In 1859 he studied painting in the New York studio of James M. Hart. The following year, the artists opened his own studio in New York City. By 1862 he held a studio in the Tenth Street Studio Building. Robbins voyaged to Jamaica with Frederick E. Church in 1865. Shortly thereafter the artist travelled to Europe, stopping first in England and then going on to France where he studied for two years. A sketching trip to Switzerland made at this time provided Robbins with landscape subjects for several years after his return to New York City in 1867. The artist taught landscape painting in New York: Edward Gay was among his pupils. In 1881 Robbins returned to the Tenth Street Studio, where he remained for six years.
Robbins first exhibited at the NAD in 1860 and continued to contribute almost annually until 1894. In 1921, Wolcott D. Robbins donated a major Harace Robbins landscape to the Academy.
