George Henry Harlow was born in St. James's Street, London, the posthumous son of a China merchant, who after some years' residence in the East had died about five months before his son's birth, leaving a widow with five infant daughters. Indulged and petted by his mother, Harlow was sent when quite young to Dr. Barrow's classical school in Soho Square, and subsequently to Mr. Roy's school in Burlington Street. He was for a short time at Westminster School*, but having shown a predilection for painting, he was placed under Henry De Cort, the landscape-painter.

He next worked under Samuel Drummond, A.R.A., the portrait-painter, but after about a year entered the studio of Sir Thomas Lawrence (president of the Royal Academy). This ste...