Horace Wolcott Robbins

Horace Wolcott Robbins
Robbins from Art and Artists in Connecticut (1878)
Born	(1842-10-21)21 October 1842 Mobile, Alabama, US
Died	1904 New York City, US
Nationality	American
Occupation	Painter
Known for	Watercolor landscapes

Horace Wolcott Robbins (21 October 1842 – 1904) was an American landscape painter known for his watercolors.

Horace Wolcott Robbins was born in Mobile, Alabama on 21 October 1842. His father came from Rocky Hill, Connecticut, descended from the first settlers there, and his mother came from Norwich, Connecticut. The family moved to Baltimore, Maryland when Robbins was aged six. He studied at Newton University in Baltimore, where he was given drawing lessons by August Weidenbach, a landscape painter from Germany. In 1859 Robbins studied under James McDougal Hart in New York City. He graduated from Newton University in 1860 and set up his own studio. During the American Civil War (1861–65) he served in the 22nd New York Regiment at the Battle of Harpers Ferry in 1862.

Horace Robbins was elected to the Century Association in 1863 and became an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1864. He exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (1862–64) and at the Boston Art Association and the Brooklyn Art Association.Hugh Bolton Jones studied under Robbins for a few months. In 1865 Robbins joined Frederic Edwin Church on a visit to Jamaica and the West Indies. He then traveled to England, the Netherlands and Paris, where he set up a studio and studied with Théodore Rousseau. He married Mary Phelps of Simsbury, Connecticut at the American Legation in Paris. He went on a sketching trip in Switzerland in 1866, spent more time in a studio in Paris, and returned to New York late in the fall of 1867. He settled into a routine of painting seven or eight landscapes each year.