Robert Hogg Nisbet is noted for his landscape, figure, genre, and etching work. He is associated with Connecticut art colonies including Old Lyme. Nisbet was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 25, 1879. His parents were William Douglas Nisbet and Isabella Hogg, and Robert was the eldest of four children. His grandparents, William and Catherine Nisbet had emigrated from the Scottish border country to the United States.
Robert entered the Rhode Island School of Design when he was eight, and later studied in New York and abroad. He taught at Brown University and was president of the Art Students League of New York, where he served as president from 1910-1911. He was elected an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design in 1920 and a National Academician (N.A.) in 1928. He was an Artist Life member of the National Arts Club. One of the incorporators of the Society of American Etchers, he was also a member of the Philadelphia Society of Etchers.
During the early 1900's, Nisbet summered in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and eventually settled in Kent, Connecticut, where he and his wife established a large home and a studio. They had no children. Nisbet was the founder of the Kent Art Association whose members included Willard Metcalf.
Nisbet had taken up rifle shooting as a boy, and during World War II was a commissioned rifle instructor. He won a number of shooting competitions. He was also interested in archery, collected minerals and seashells, and had a large library collection of four thousand books.
His work won him three National Academy awards, several etching awards, and the National Arts Club (Painting) prize. His etchings and paintings were exhibited in Paris, France, Yale University, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Library, National Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, and Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian Institution has a database with references to fourteen of his works.