A native of Minsk, Russia, Abraham Bogdanove (1886-1946) immigrated to New York City with his family in 1900. While settling in New York, Bogdanove began his artistic studies at a number of the city`s finest institutions, including Cooper Union, the Art Students League, the National Academy of Design, where he worked under the tutelage of American artists George Willoughby Maynard and Francis Coates Jones, and the Columbia University School of Architecture, where he honed his design and drafting skills. Bogdanove earned three consecutive exhibition awards during his student years at the National Academy, an achievement that helped him to earn his first commission in 1912. This frieze for a childrens' home marked the beginning of his commercially successful career as a muralist and strengthened his involvement with the burgeoning popularity of architectural murals during the American Renaissance of the turn of the nineteenth century. Despite his accomplishments as a muralist, Bogdanove devoted his most passionate artistic efforts to marine painting, a genre he exhibited extensively following his first journeys to the Maine coast and Monhegan Island in 1918. He purchased a house on the island and returned every summer, cementing his attachment to Monhegan`s rugged scenery and its community of devoted artists.