Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 1.djvu/22

 contribution to the Royal Academy was 'A Milkmaid ' (1885), in black and white.

Meanwhile Abbey's power matured in water-colour, pastel, and oil. Although his delicate fancy lent itself admirably to water-colour painting, he executed not much more than a score of works in that medium ; but they stand high in the list of his achievements. His first water-colour was 'Rustics Dancing in a Barn,' which was shown at the exhibition of the American Water-Colour Society of New York before 1876, and a few others followed in that and succeeding years. To the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours he contributed 'The Widower' (1883); 'The Bible Reading' (1884) ; 'The Old Song' (1885) ; and 'The March Past ' (1887) ; and to the Royal Society of Painters in Water-Colours, 'An Attention' (1893-4-5); and 'Quiet Conscience' (1896). On occasion Abbey would use pastel with brilliant effect, as in 'Good Friday Morning' (1884); his pastel sketches from Goldsmith's plays, exhibited in 1896, are masterly; but the examples of his work in this method are relatively few.

In 1890 he sent to the Royal Academy his first oil picture, 'A May-Day Morning,' which attracted wide attention for its originality, humour, truth, and joyousness. This was retouched and somewhat modified in 1904. He now embarked on a great commission for Boston, and not until 1894 did he send again to the Royal Academy. His second work seen there in oils, 'Fiammetta's Song,' created so deep an impression that he was immediately elected A.R.A. Many important historical and poetic compositions were now shown at the Academy : 'Richard, Duke of Gloucester and the Lady Anne' (1896), and ' King Lear, Act 1, Scene 1' (both in the McCulloch-Coutts Michie collection) and 'Hamlet' (1897). 'The Bridge' was shown in 1898, when Abbey was elected full member of the R.A. Subsequently came 'Who is Sylvia, what is she. . . ?' and 'O Mistress mine, where are you roaming ? ' (1899) (now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) ; 'A Lute Player' (diploma work), 'The Trial of Queen Katherine' (Senator W. A. Clarke's collection), and 'The Penance of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, &c.' (1900) ; 'Crusaders sighting Jerusalem' (1901); 'Pot-Pourri' (1903 signed * 1899 ') ; 'A Measure,' and a decoration, a triple panel reredos for the Holy Trinity Church, Paris (1904); 'Columbus in the New World' (1906), which startled the Abbey public by its decorative scheme; and in 1910, the last year of his career, an historical picture, 'The Camp of the Army at Valley Forge, Feb. 1778,' as well as a great upright decoration, 'Penn's Treaty with the Indians,' both for the state capitol of Pennsylvania. Meanwhile Abbey painted a few other pictures : 'The Poet,' his only contribution to the New Gallery (afterwards much altered and almost wholly re-painted) ; 'A Pavane' (1897) for Mr. Whitelaw Reid ; 'Fair is my Love' (1906), in the gallery of the corporation of Preston ; and the official picture of 'The Coronation of H.M. King Edward VII,' at Buckingham Palace, a work fifteen feet by nine feet, containing 120 excellent portraits and occupying the artist during 1903-4.

Abbey's mural decorations comprise the most ambitious part of his work. The great frieze for the delivery room of the public library of Boston, U.S.A., on which he was engaged between 1890 and 1901, is lofty in conception and original in plan and one of the most elaborate decorations produced by either American or British artist. Five of the paintings 90 feet in aggregate length were shown at the Conduit Street Galleries, London, in January 1895, and the completed series at the Guildhall, October to November 1901 fifteen paintings in all. The dramatic presentation and artistic power of this great effort were recognised at once. For the Royal Exchange, London, he executed in 1904 a mural panel representing the ancient reconciliation of the two City companies, the Skinners and the Merchant Taylors, 1484. There followed a vast commission to decorate the state capitol of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg. In April 1908 eight large allegorical paintings, forming a portion for the dome, were exhibited in London at the Imperial Institute. At his death he had completed the immense composition 'The Apotheosis of Pennsylvania,' in which the whole history of the state is summarised, and the dome-ceiling 'The 24 Hours.' Other decorative work had occupied Abbey, especially the designs for Sir Henry Irving's contemplated but abandoned production of 'Richard II' (1898). At the request of the office of works Abbey superintended the decoration of the peers' corridor in the Houses of Parliament with historical pictures, approximating in sentiment to the Tudor style of the architecture, by a group of young artists working on an harmonious plan. These were completed in 1910.

Abbey died on 1 Aug. 1911 at Chelsea Lodge of an affection of the liver. After