Havell was the son of a Reading drawing-master, and he participated in several sketching societies in the early 19th century. In 1805 he contributed to the first exhibition held by the Society of Painters in Water-colours, of which he was a founder-member.

At the same time he began to establish himself as an oil painter, in the manner of Richard Wilson and J. M. W. Turner, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and the British Institution. Initial success was followed by mounting criticism of his idealized treatment of brightly sunlit subjects. The disillusioned Havell accepted the post of official artist to the embassy of China led by William Pitt, Earl Amherst of Arracan (1773-1857), which set out in 1816; Havell was able to sketch...