Frederick Henshaw was born in Harborne, south-west Birmingham. He trained under the landscape painter Joseph Vincent Barber (1788–1838), who ran a drawing academy and an academy of life drawing in Birmingham. Henshaw travelled widely throughout the British Isles and in 1838 made a tour of Italy, which resulted in a number of Italianate landscapes, including views of Tivoli, Sarzana and presumably the present picture. In 1840 Henshaw moved to Small Heath, on the outskirts of Birmingham, where he spent the rest of his life. He was closely involved with the Birmingham Society of Arts, which he joined in 1826. Henshaw became honorary secretary from 1842 to 1847 and remained actively involved as a trustee until his death in 1891.¹