Arthur George Bell, was born at St Dunstan's-in-the-East, City of London in 1849, son of George Bell (1814-1890), a London bookseller, and his wife Hannah née Simpson (c.1819-1875), who married at St Pancras Church, London in 1840. In 1851, Arthur was living at 2 Haverstock Terrace, Hampstead with his parents, 35 year old George and 32 year old Hannah and his five siblings, Mary 8, Edward 6, Edith 5, Rachel 3 and a male newly born infant. Arthur was educated at City of London School and at the Slade School of Fine Art and later a pupil of Jean-Léon Gérome (1824-1904) and Charles Auguste Émile Durand, known as Carolus-Duran (1837-1917) at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He married at Southwell Minster, Nottinghamshire in 1882, Nancy Regina Emily Meugens (1844-1933), who was an author and translator, and the eldest of their three children, Kenneth Norman Bell, was born at Sutherland House, Southwold, Suffolk in 1884. A painter and illustrator and in 1888 a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club in which year he exhibited three paintings 'The River Blyth', 'Return of the Haymakers' and 'The Landing Place' and was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy from 1879; the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil Colours and the Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colour. By 1891, they had moved to 'Ruthkeah', St Catherine's Road, Christchurch, Hampshire and by 1911 had left Hampshire for 42 Queens Road, Richmond, Surrey but Arthur died at 'Rastgarth', Foxholes Road, Southbourne-on-sea, Bournemouth, Dorset on 24 September 1916, aged 67. His wife Nancy's (Nancy D'Anvers) books include a series 'An Elementary History of Painting' (1883); 'An Elementary History of Art(1888); 'Masterpieces of the Great Artists AD 1400-1700' (1893); 'The Student's Handbook of Art(1895); 'Thomas Gainsborough' (1897); 'Representative Painters of the XIXth Century' (1899); 'The Saints in Christian Art' (1901-04); 'Tintoretto' (1905); 'Paolo Veronese' (1904); 'Architecture' 1913; 'Mantegna' 1911. Nancy also wrote tourist guides, travel books, lives of saints and translated the text of James Jacques Joseph Tissot's 'The life of our Saviour Jesus Christ; three hundred and sixty-five compositions' with her husband illustrating several of her works.