Garden scene with kittens. Oil on canvas. Signed lower right "Abbott Graves/Boston". Born in Weymouth, Massachusetts, Abbott Fuller Graves developed his love of flowers while working at a greenhouse as a teenager. He devoted himself to flower painting beginning in 1877, attending classes at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he probably met his fellow Impressionist and lifelong friend Childe Hassam. In 1881 he opened a studio in Boston and by 1883 was considered the best flower painter in the city. In 1884 Graves left for two years of study in Paris under famous flower painter Georges Jeannin and returned to study at the Académie Julian from 1887 to 1891. During this period Graves met another lifelong friend and prominent Impressionist, Edmund Tarbell. Tarbell and Hassam both took part in Graves’ 1886 wedding to his former student, Montie Aldrich. Graves and his wife eventually settled in sleepy Kennebunkport, Maine, where he began painting the flower garden subjects for which he is best known. Graves exhibited his paintings at the National Academy of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Paris Salon, Boston Art Club, and was awarded a medal at the 1905 Exposition des Beaux-Arts, Paris. He was a member of the Salmagundi Club, Allied Artists of America, and the National Arts Club, and in 1926 he was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design. His work is found in important private collections, including the Pfeil and the Manoogian collections, as well as in public collections such as the National Arts Club, New York; Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, New York; Strong Museum, Rochester, New York; Princeton University Museum of Art, New Jersey; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Hermitage Foundation Museum, Norfolk, Virginia; and the Washington University Gallery of Art, Saint Louis. Size 18" x 24".