Henry Bayley Snell was born in 1858, in Richmond, England. In 1875, he emigrated to the United States to begin his studies at the Art Students League in New York City. In the 1880s, while working at the Photoengraving Company, he met William Langson Lathrop who later introduced him to the scenery of Bucks County, Pennsylvania. In 1899, Snell began teaching at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, remaining until 1943. He influenced many prominent American artists, including some of the Philadelphia Ten and Theresa Bernstein. In 1921, he co-founded the Boothbay Studios in Boothbay Harbor, Maine which operated as a summer school. He exhibited at the Art Club of Philadelphia, the Salmagundi Club, and the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915. During his lifetime, he traveled and painted extensively. He died in 1943 in New Hope, Pennsylvania.