A curator and art teacher, George Wallis (1811-1891) was one of the most significant figures in the early South Kensington Museum. He served as headmaster of government-run Schools of Art at Spitalfields, Manchester and Birmingham, and his ideas on the instruction of industrial art were influential on the system later developed by the Department of Science and Art. Wallis was appointed to South Kensington Museum in 1858 and made Keeper of Art in 1863, retiring only a month before he died. He was active in promoting the circulation of works of art from South Kensington to regional museums.

Wallis was also a practising artist. The V&A collections contains three oil paintings by him: a study of flowers (664-1891) which he probably painted for teaching and demonstration purposes; a view of the Crystal Palace (1453-1903); and a view of an old plane tree in the museum grounds (457-1906). He made an etching of this last view, and two others of the museum grounds from the windows of his residence, of which this is one.(There is another impression in the collection, E.5751-1906).