Early Life, Family and Training London, 14 September 1832. Pentonville provides the setting for the birth of Edward Hughes. He enters a world where art is a family trade, born to the artist George Hughes. The lineage is established early. Talent manifests before the boy reaches adulthood. The trajectory shifts in 1846. Edward Hughes enters the Royal Academy schools to begin formal training. The discipline of the academy meets a natural aptitude. By 1847, the recognition arrives in the form of a silver medal from the Royal Society of Arts. The award is for a chalk drawing. It marks the begin…