George Enslin was born in 1919 in Richmond, England. His father served as a military chaplain with the South African Forces during World War I, and after the war the family settled in Elgin in the Western Cape. Enslin briefly studied engineering at Stellenbosch University before turning to art, training in commercial art under Arthur Podolini Volkmann at the School of Commercial and Fine Art in Cape Town.

In 1946, Enslin continued his studies at the Continental School of Art in Cape Town under Maurice van Essche and held his first solo exhibition two years later. Between 1949 and 1950, he attended the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London, the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara, Ita...