Robert Abbett is noted as one of America’s contemporary masters of sporting and wildlife art. Abbett was born in Hammond, Indiana in 1962. He received his degrees from Purdue University and the University of Missouri in general science and fine art respectively. He continued his artistic training at the Chicago Academy of Fine Art while also pursuing a career in editorial and advertising art. Moving to Connecticut in 1953 to be closer to the editorial markets, he illustrated for The Woman’s Home Companion, Argosy, Sports Afield, Reader’s Digest, and True magazines. In 1970, he was commissioned to paint the English Setter Luke, his first animal portrait that led him to become a full-time artist. With his wife Marilyn, Abbett lived and worked at his Connecticut farm, Oakdale. He would roam the fields and woods to become more familiar with the animals and wildlife known to hunters. This led to the emotion-evoking success of his works. To look at his art is to participate in Abbett’s emotion toward a scene's content. His work is recognized as unsurpassed, especially those with bird dogs. Abbett was equally known for his fly fishing scenes, equine paintings, western landscapes, and portraiture. Robert Abbett was associated with the American Artists Group and the Society of Illustrators, and was a member of the Society of Animal Artists. His work was exhibited in numerous group and one-man shows, including the National Academy of Western Art Exhibition and the Brandywine River Museum Exhibit where his work hung alongside that of Winslow Homer and Andrew Wyeth. He was the recipient of the Salmagundi Club Gold Medal in 1973. Additionally, Abbett was selected for the first series of the Trout Unlimited Stamp Prints, the 1982 Wild Turkey stamp, the 1982 artist for the Ruffed Grouse Society’s Conservation Stamp Print, and the 1981 Buzzards Stamp design. Abbett is represented in the permanent collections of the Genesco Country Museum Gallery of Wildlife Art in Mumford, New York, the Dog Museum of America in St. Louis, Missouri and the National Bird Dog Museum in Grand Junction, Tennessee. His work is illustrated in the book The Outdoor Paintings of Robert K. Abbett, published by Peacock Press/Bantam Books. Articles on his work have appeared in dozens of magazines such as Sports Afield, Gray's Sporting Journal, Wildlife Art, and Sporting Classics.