The marine painter and watercolorist Arthur Quartley was born in Paris, but in 1851 his family settled in Peekskill, New York. He studied with his father Frederick W. Quartley (1808-1874) but was basically self-taught. He began his career as an engraver in his hometown and later worked as a sign painter in New York City. He was a partner in the decorating firm of Emmart and Quartley in Baltimore, where he lived from 1862 to 1875. Soon after his father's death he moved to New York, where he established his studio and specialized in marine painting. He made frequent sketching trips along the New England coast and as far south as Virginia. Quartley maintained a summer home on one of the Isles of Shoals, a group of nine islands (including Star Island and Appledore Island) off the New Hampshire coast popular with a number of artists of the period. Many of his paintings were executed at this island retreat. In the early 1880s, he spent some time in Europe painting along the Thames River, along the coast of Cornwall (especially St. Ives), in the Netherlands, and in Venice.

 

Quartley was a member of the National Academy of Design in New York. He exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Association from 1875 to 1886, at the National Academy from 1875 to 1887, at the Boston Art Club from 1882 to 1885, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in 1879, 1880, and 1883.