Born at Bellvue, Mallow, into a prominent Cork family of nurserymen (his brother William Baylor Hartland in particular was well-known among Cork business circles), Henry Albert Hartland studied at the Cork School of Art. He found employment supplying sketches of the local landscape to a Cork bookseller, and printing scenery for the Cork Theatre and the Theatre Royal in Dublin.

He left Ireland circa 1870, settling at first in London and shortly after in Liverpool, where he spent the rest of his life. His talents there were soon recognized and he sold paintings almost as fast as he painted them. He made return trips to Ireland, painting in Mayo, Clare, and along the River Shannon.

In 1865 he sent five landscapes to the Royal Hibernian Academy* and from then was an occasional contributor. He also exhibited in London with the Society of Artists, the Grosvenor Gallery, the New Watercolour Society, and the Royal Academy*.

He died in 1893 after falling from a cliff outside of Liverpool. His work was included in the Guildhall Exhibition of Irish Art in London in 1904, and may now be seen in the Walker Gallery, Liverpool, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx