Arthur John Elsley was born on 20 November 1860 in London. His parents were John Elsley, a coachman and Emily Freer, resident at Curzon Street, Soho. His father was a talented amateur artist. The earliest surviving drawing by Arthur dates from when he was eleven years old. It was a pencil sketch of a cairn terrier named Vic. Other works included pencil sketches of a chimpanzee, a giraffe, and an arctic wolf, which he made when he visited the Zoological Gardens in Regents Park in 1874. At the age of 14 Arthur enrolled at the South Kensington School of Art. He became a probationer at the Royal Academy Schools in 1876 and he studied there until 1882 under Frederick Pickersgill (Keeper of the Royal Academy), Edward Armitage (Professor of Painting), John Marshal (Professor of Anatomy), and Henry Bowler (Professor of Perspective). Elsley exhibited his first painting, Portrait of an Old Pony, at the Royal Academy in 1878. His father died a month later. He then commenced earning his living from portrait commissions of children, horses, and dogs. Elsley was friends with the artist Solomon Joseph Solomon and shared a studio with George Grenville Manton (1855-1932). He was a keen cyclist and took a cycling trip through Belgium and Northern France with Manton in their student days. Manton also introduced Elsley to Frederick Morgan (1847-1927) and when Manton left the studio in St John’s Wood in 1889, Elsley took his place. Elsley was awarded a silver medal in the Crystal Palace exhibition of 1891 for his painting The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington. Elsley’s paintings testify his fondness for children, in particular his own daughter Marjorie, who was often the model for many of his works. Elsley preferred themes of sentimental narratives are often placed in rustic settings, suggesting that he was well acquainted with the countryside. His young, pretty children are often depicted playing, or with their pets. I’se Biggest, which depicts a small girl standing on a book, measuring herself against an enormous St Bernard Dog, was exhibited at the RA in 1892, and won him considerable public acclaim. Elsley occasionally deviated from his pet and childhood themes, producing such works as Suprised! (1904) which depicted a lady on her horse out hunting, leaping over a monastery wall and scattering surprised monks in all directions. Elsley often collaborated with Morgan, with whom he shared a studio near Lord’s Cricket Ground at Northbank. He typically painted animals in these joint compositions. Elsley’s paintings were often engraved or used for advertisements, greatly enhancing his popularity and making him a household name. His idyllic images of childhood became the icons of the Edwardian Era and were often used in calendars, advertisements, books and magazines. His prints were used commercially by many firms – calendars by the American firm Thomas D Murphy Co. Sunlight Soap; Brook’s Sewing Cottons, and Peek Frean & Co., Biscuits & Cakes and Bibby’s Quarterly. Elsley’s commercial success enabled him to marry his second cousin Emily Fusedale in November 1893. She was the eldest of three sisters and ten years younger than Arthur. They had one daughter Marjorie, who was born in 1903. In 1894, when the well-known artist Charles Burton Barber (1845-94) died, Elsley succeeded him as the foremost exponent of paintings depicting children and pets. His Safely Guarded may be seen above. The Illustrated London News, 25 January 1896 averred: ‘Mr Elsley appears more distinctly as a follower, though not an imitator, of Mr Burton Barber, differing from him by allowing his children more than a pet at a time, and going beyond the limitations of a fox-terrier, or a collie. He has a keen sense of humour, especially in his treatment of puppies’ backs, which, as students of dog-life well know, are their most expressive features.’ The Great War had a considerable impact on Elsley’s output and he worked part-time in a munitions factory. He only painted four works in the period 1915-17. Three were commercial works, and one was a portrait of his daughter Marjorie, which was not for sale, but was exhibited at the RA. In the years that followed, he continued to paint mostly for pleasure and exhibited until 1927. However, his eyesight deteriorated, and by 1931, it became so poor that he confined his activities to woodwork, metalwork and gardening. He died at his home on 19 February 1952, at the great age of 91.