Abraham Jacob Bogdanove

Monhegan Coast

Abraham Jacob Bogdanove (September 2, 1888 – August 1946) was an American artist, mural painter, and teacher best known for his seascape paintings of the Maine coast, particularly around Monhegan Island. Bogdanove was born in Minsk, (Russian Empire now Belarus), on September 2, 1888, and moved with his family to New York City on December 25, 1900. He studied at the Cooper Union in New York, The National Academy of Design, and Columbia University School of Architecture. Bogdanove first visited Maine in 1915, summering at Mount Desert Island, and in 1918 he visited Monhegan Island, purchasing a house there in 1920; thereon he visited Monhegan every year until his death in 1946, becoming an established presence on the island and producing a series of landscapes and seascapes that would constitute the largest part of his painting. "There are a number of reasons why I prefer Monhegan to all other places on the Atlantic coast.... The cliffs are so bold and precipitous and the studies offered by the island shore so inexhaustible. The climate suits me. Perhaps [it is] because it is more like that of Russia, where my ancestors lived"