Arthur Melville was a Scottish painter, now probably best remembered for his Orientalist subjects. He was born in Scotland, in a village of Haddingtonshire. He took up painting while working as a grocer's apprentice, then attended the Royal Scottish Academy* Schools and studied afterwards in Paris and Greece. However, he learned more from practice and personal observation than from school training.

The remarkable colour-sense which is so notable a feature of his work, whether in oils or in watercolour, came to him during his adventurous travels in Persia, Egypt and Turkey from 1880-82, where he by no means stuck to the major cities, travelling alone on long inland journeys. To convey strong Middle Eastern light, he developed a techn...