Adolphus Knell is a member of the famous Knell family who specialised in maritime subjects, a brother to William Callcott Knell and most probably the son of William Adolphus Knell.

Originally a decorator of furniture in Bath, he moved to Bristol where he specialised in small marines in the late nineteenth century.

In these two pictures he uses a strong source of light transfusing the picture from the horizon towards the viewer, a device he often employed – see Plate 98 in Brook Harts “British Nineteenth Century Marine painting”.

His work remains highly collectable; these are two fine examples of his oeuvre