Born in South Africa in 1910, Frank Graham Bell moved to England to study under Duncan Grant. His career began with painted abstracts but he took a detour into journalism in the mid-1930s. Upon his return to painting, Bell became a founder of the School of Painting and Drawing at 316 Euston Road in London. He adopted a more naturalist style of painting than his previous work. As with this painting and the teachings of what was later to become the Euston Road School, Bell began painting traditional subjects in a realist manner. Bell enlisted in the Royal Air Force when war broke out. He later died during a training flight in England. This ended what was expected to be a sensitive and conscientious artistic career.