Hugh Newell was born in Belfast, Ireland, October 4, 1830. He is a member of the Irish School of painters and is known for his genre paintings. He studied at the Academy d'Anvers and continued his studies in Paris under Couture and at the Royal College of Art in London. As a youth he lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and in Baltimore, where he became connected with the Maryland Institute and John Hopkins University. He was a member of the American Watercolor Society. Two of the artist's paintings are in the Peabody Institute of Baltimore.