George Harrison was born in Liverpool to a mother who was a flower painter. They afterwards lived in Denbighshire until he was 14, after which he went to London with a view to working in art. He did anatomical and medical drawings in the Hunterian School in Windmill Street but met and was encouraged in landscape by Constable. This led to him becoming a landscape and figure painter and teacher, in both London and Paris, with a preference for working and teaching en plein air, in which he organized summer Saturday painting outings among fellow artists. Elected to the Old Water Colour Society, his rising career was ended by his death from a heart condition on 20th October 1847. He was buried at Kensal Green.