Edwin Austin Abbey was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 1 April 1852. He studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts under Christian Schuessele. He began work as an illustrator, producing numerous illustrations and sketches for such magazines as Harper’s Weekly and Scribner’s Magazine. He was on the staff of Harper’s by the time he was 19 and, despite success, recognition and raises, he left to pursue a free-lance career at the age of 22. He returned to Harper’s in 1876, at the ripe old age of 24, a wily veteran at the sum of $50 a week (more than three times his 1871 initial salary). 1876 was also the American Centennial and one of the many celebratory events was the Centennial Exhibition which brought a wide selection of European paintings to Philadelphia. Abbey was inspired by the work of Leighton, Watt, Boughton, and others. Already a proponent of drawing from life, the work of the Pre-Raphaelites inspired him still further. That led to a voyage to England in 1878 in the cause of accuracy in his drawings for Herrick’s Poems. He made his home in Gloucestershire for most of the rest of his life. His pen work, though always excellent, took on a new dimension. The sketching ‘rambles’ he experienced in England with Alfred Parsons and George Boughton reinforced his belief in the value of drawing from the source. While in England, he produced illustrations for many Harper’s serials including ‘She Stoops to Conquer’ (published as a book in 1887), ‘Old Songs’ and ‘Judith Shakespeare’ (which were also published in book form, with Abbey’s illustrations). While in Europe, he met and was inspired by the great French and English artists of the day. Abbey was friends with Alma-Tadema, du Maurier, Whistler, and others. And though he painted throughout, he still used the pen as his primary artistic tool. His prowess with the pen led Harper’s to assign him a series of illustrations for Shakespeare’s comedies in 1887. The Shakespeare illustrations, which would continue until 1909, were executed in many media: pen, oil, watercolour and pencil. These were some of his first published oil paintings and his European experience continued to pay dividends. And the access to the costumes and stage props so readily available in England lent a sense of reality often missing elsewhere. He also travelled to Italy for more research. In 1890 Abbey was commissioned to create a mural for the Book Delivery Room at the new Boston Public Library in Copley Square, Massachusetts. He got the commission through his fiancé, who was then sitting for a portrait by the artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The subject he chose was ‘The Quest for the Holy Grail’. The murals are composed of a series of 15 panels featuring 150 life-sized figures illustrating Arthurian legend. Abbey’s work was unveiled in 1901. Among the critics and reviewers who praised his achievement was Mrs Arthur Bell, who wrote in The Artist: ‘Mr Abbey’s Quest of the Holy Grail is as fine a thing in painting as Tennyson’s interpretation of the same theme in verse, and is a proof, if proof be needed, of the close kinship between all great thinkers of the Anglo-Saxon race whatever their nationality.’ The first half were completed and installed in 1895, the remainder in 1901. That year, Abbey was elected President of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. He was elected RA in 1898. Another important easel painting of that period was The Crusaders Sighting Jerusalem (1901). In 1902 he illustrated an edition of Oliver Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village and was selected to paint the coronation of King Edward VII that same year. It was the official painting of the occasion and may be found in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. That same year, Abbey accepted his second great mural commission for the new state capitol at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1907 he declined an offer of knighthood from the King. In 1911 he became ill with cancer, which unsurprisingly slowed his productivity. At the time, he was working on the Reading of the Declaration of Independence mural which was later installed in the House Chamber at Harrisburg. Abbey eventually became so ill, that his studio assistant Ernest Board completed the work. Abbey died on 1 August 1911 and the work at the capitol was completed by John Singer Sargent and Violet Oakley. A biography by E V Lucas, titled: Life and Work of Edwin Austin Abbey, RA. with 200, mostly photogravure, illustrations, was published in 1921. In 1937 Yale University became the home for a sizable collection of Abbey’s works, the result of a bequest from his widow.