Arthur Cramer James Wasse (1854-1930) was born in Manchester in 1854, the son of John Angelo Wasse, a painter of miniature portraits. He started painting at an early age.
In 1875 Wasse was studying at the Manchester School of Art and, by the late 1870s, had exhibited work in London to good reviews.
He received several prizes when he was studying at the Munich school of painting.
After a short stint at the Royal Academy, Wasse returned to Munich, where he was entranced by southern Germany’s towns and landscapes and between 1875-1890 he travelled back and forth between Germany and England, running his own art school in London for a time.