Halswelle was brought up in Richmond, Surrey, but began his career in Edinburgh and did not exhibit at the Royal Academy in London until he was 30. He was a skilled but initially rather conventional figure painter, especially of Italian subjects - but in the 1880s he started to paint landscapes of Scotland and the Thames Valley in a looser, marvellously dramatic manner. He lived on a houseboat, painting hundreds of plein air sketches, many of which have ended up in the V&A and the National Gallery. This painting was probably done on the way to Italy, which he visited several times in his career. From the style, it would appear to be a later work.