Abbott Fuller Graves became the premier floral painter in the Unites States at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth. His travels abroad, primarily to and from Paris, greatly influenced his Impressionistic garden scenes he is so well known for today. Born on April 15, 1859 in Weymouth, Massachusetts Graves left school at a young age to begin work in a greenhouse, a job which surely informed his floral still lifes in the 1870s and 80s. In 1877 Graves enrolled at M.I.T.’s Lowell School of Practical Design where he studied drawing and just a year later he was included in the Boston Art Club’s annual exhibition. By 1881 he had his own studio on Tremont Street, and had established a reputation for himself as Boston’s leading painter of floral still lifes. In 1884 Graves made his first of many trips to Paris, and during his travels to Italy and France, he befriended Edmund Tarbell, who became a life-long friend. Upon his return, Graves was offered a position as a faculty member at the Cowles Art School Boston, where Childe Hassam was already working. This was the beginning of another life-long friendship and influence upon his artwork. This same year, Graves moved his studio to Washington Street. Three years later in 1887, Graves went back to Paris, where he enrolled at the Académie Julian. While there he studied figure painting with Henri Gervex, Fernand Cormon and Jean-Paul Laurens. By the of the end of the 1880s, Graves had been exposed to the influences of Childe Hassam, Paris Impressionism and figure painting. The combination of these three influences would help Graves create his most famous works, which were Impressionistic garden scenes with female figures. In 1889 Graves exhibited two paintings at Le Salon and two at the Universal Exposition, Paris. Throughout the 1890s Graves exhibited widely, including at the National Academy of Design, The Chicago Columbian Exposition, The Boston Art Club and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He also continued to travel back and forth between New England and Paris. In 1891 he established his own art school in Boston, which ultimately moved with him to Kennebunkport, Maine, finally closing in 1902. Though he continued to paint floral scenes, the works he initially produced upon his move to Maine were genre scenes of life around Kennebunkport. Between 1902 and 1905 Graves spent his winters in Paris working as an illustrator. In 1906 he built his own home, “Westlook,” in Kennebunkport, Maine, and returned to floral painting, however he was painting on a much grander scale, with heavily sunlit pictures and female figures, reflecting the Influence of European Impressionism. Throughout the 1920s Graves was constantly exhibiting, and in 1926 he was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design. Abbott Fuller Graves died on July 17, 1936 in Maine, leaving behind a large and beautiful body of floral and genre paintings, that are well represented in collections across the country.