Arthur John Elsley was a British genre painter, best known for charming paintings of Victorian English children frolicking with domestic animals. Born on November 20, 1860 in London, England, his eyesight was permanently impaired by a childhood bout with measles. He nevertheless went on to study at the South Kesington School of Art in 1874, fueling his lifelong interest in painting. His work was greatly appreciated regionally throughout the latter portion of the 19th century, garnering awards like a silver medal in the 1891 Crystal Palace exhibition, and he notably befriended another prominent painter of children, . Elsley died in Tunbridge Wells on February 19, 1952.