This watercolour probably dates from the voyage to the east that Halswelle made towards the end of his life with Sir John Prender, the Scottish pioneer of submarine telegraphy. 

Keeley Halswelle RI ARSA, 1832-1891

Born in Richmond, Surrey, of Scottish Parentage, Halswelle trained in London and at the Royal Scottish Academy's Life Class in Edinburgh. A painter in oil and watercolour of figure subjects and landscape, he started his career as an illustrator of the Illustrated London News. In 1856 he settled in Edinburgh, becoming the chief illustrator at the publishers Nelson. Halswelle visited Rome for the first time in 1868 and lived in Italy for several years from 1869, achieving considerable success wit his paintings of Roman Street scenes exhibited in the 1870s. He also worked for a time in Paris.