Alfred William Hunt was born in Liverpool and studied at Oxford where he won the Newdigate Prize for English Verse in 1851. He was a Fellow at Corpus Christi, Oxford until 1861 when he decided to devote his career to art and moved to London. Influenced by Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, his watercolours were admired by Ruskin. He travelled widely in Britain and the Continent and was a frequent and regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy, Royal Watercolour Society and elsewhere.