John Keeley Halswelle, known professionally as Kelley Halswelle, was born on April 23, 1832 in Richmond, Surrey, the son of a Scottish family who had settled near London. He was a painter of genre scenes and landscapes, as well as a watercolorist and illustrator. After a classical English education in Richmond, including classes at the British Museum in drawing and painting. Because to his youthful talent, Halswell became an illustrator, working for a number of printers and print publications including the Illustrated London News, known at its creation in 1842 as the “world’s first illustrated weekly news magazine,” In 1854 he went to Scotland in order to draw landscapes, but while there he found local employers and decided to establish himself as an artist in Edinburgh. He studied at the Royal Scottish Academy where he became an associate member in 1866. He next went to work in Paris, and later to Italy where he painted street scenes and the Roman outskirts. Finding limited success with these paintings he began painting landscapes, which were much better received. His works can be seen in many museum collections, including Dublin, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Melbourne, and Sydney. He died on April 11, 1891 in Paris.