John Absolon was born in Lambeth in May 1815. He was described in a profile in The Art Journal as "one among many artists who have raised themselves by energy and perseverance alone to a good position in their profession and in society". By the age of 15 he was earning a living as a portrait painter, and two years later he was working as a theatrical scene-painter, contributing the figures to stage sets at Drury Lane and Covent Garden. He showed two oil paintings on religious subjects at the British Institution in 1837. Dissatisfied with the direction of his work, he left for Paris the next year, accompanied by his wife. He stayed there for almost a year, supporting himself by painting miniatures. From 1839 he exhibited at the New Watercolour Society, of which he had become a member before his departure for France. He resigned from the society in 1858 to concentrate on oil painting, and showed several works at the Royal Academy, but he returned to it in 1861. He contributed the figures to "The Overland Mail" an attraction exhibited at the 'Gallery of Illustration' in Regent Street, described in an advertisement as "a gigantic moving diorama of the route of the overland mail to India". He later visited Switzerland and Italy, and exhibited scenes from the two countries.James Dafforne, writing in the Art Journal, said of Absolon: There are few figure painters whose works show a greater variety of subject than Mr. Absolon's; his style of treatment is natural and unaffected, his pencilling free yet careful, and his colouring brilliant without exaggeration, or a straining after effect by violent contrasts.