In the 1890s Cecil Aldin was a household name for his paintings and sketches of dogs and sporting scenes. He showed a talent for drawing at an early age and he went on to study at the National Art Training School which later became The Royal College of Art. After also training under the direction of the acclaimed animal painter Frank Calderon, his illustrations soon graced the pages of the leading periodicals of the time and in 1892 he embarked on his long association with The Illustrated London News. His first major commission was Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Stories’ and he was a founding member of the London Sketch club.