Henry Scott Tuke was born in York, the son of a Quaker doctor. He was brought up in Falmouth and London. He studied at the Slade, in Florence, 1880, and Paris, 1881–1883, under J. P. Laurens. He was encouraged by J. Bastien-Lepage to continue his studies 'en plein air'. He returned to Cornwall, first to Newlyn and then in 1885 to Falmouth where he bought a boat. He was often associated with the Newlyn School of painting but denied any links with it himself. His earlier works display the Newlyn painters' favoured use of the square brush but his style gradually moved away from this to become looser in brushwork and thinner in paint. His palette was brightened after a visit to the Mediterranean in 1892 and the sale of 'August Blue' to the nation in 1894 increased his enthusiasm for the study of the open-air male nude.