Thomas Hartley Cromek was born in London in 1809. He was the son of engraver Robert Hartley Cromek. In 1826 he went to Leeds to study landscape, and also taught himself anatomical drawing. Travels in Italy followed in 1830, with visits to Belgium, Germany and Switzerland on the way. In Florence and in Rome his drawings attracted attention, and up until 1849 he spent his time visiting the principal buildings of Italy and Greece making drawings. His strength was Grecian landscape. In 1850 Cromek was elected an Associate of the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours. Hartley was active between 1835 and 1872 when he had some seventy works exhibited across London: six at the Royal Academy; four at the Society of British Artists in Suffolk Street; and, sixty at the New Water-Colour Society, later the Royal Institute. Thomas Hartley Cromek died in Wakefield in 1873.