Abbey Altson was born at Middlesborough-on-Tees, in Yorkshire, England. He moved to Melbourne, Australia circa 1885 and studied drawing at the National Gallery School of Design. In 1886 he enrolled full-time in the School of Painting under Folingsby, along with artists Fred McCubbin, John Longstaff, Emanuel Phillips Fox, David Davies, Tudor St. George Tucker, and Fred Williams. He won prizes every year thus establishing his reputation as both a portrait and figure painter. After winning the National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Scholarship 1890, he left for Paris in 1891 and moved to England where he lived for most of his life, never again residing in Australia. His black and white drawings appeared in Pearson’s Magazine and the Pall Mall Magazine. A series of color pictures that appeared in Pearson’s impressed one of the owners that he gave Altson £800 to paint frescoes at his townhouse. Altson moved from London to New York City in 1949 where he lived with his son and daughter-in-law, both of whom were artists. He exhibited his paintings at the Paris and London salons throughout his life.