William Huggins was born in Liverpool and studied at the local Mechanics' Institute, where he won a prize at the age of fifteen for an historical subject. However, he devoted himself to animals and their depiction, keeping a houseful of pets and making frequent visits to Chester Zoo and Wombell's travelling menagerie. From 1845, he responded to the poor reception of his pure animal pictures by synthesising natural history and its human counterpart in such paintings as David in the Lion's Den and Una and the Lion. An associate (1847) and full (1850) member of the Liverpool Academy, he resigned in 1856 in defiance of its enthusiasm for Pre-Raphaelitism. From 1857, he exhibited regularly at the Liverpool Institute of Fine Arts and the Royal Academy, and became one of the best known of wildlife painters and a landscapist of great originality.
As demonstrated by the picture included here, he created the rich surfaces of his landscape oils by applying several layers of subtle glazes. In 1861, he moved to Chester, where he painted many views of the cathedral and city. He also produced portraits, including one of his elder brother, the architect Samuel Huggins. In 1876 he took a house at Bettws-y-Coed. He later returned to Chester, and died at Christleton near that city on 25 February 1884.
