Early Life, Family and Artistic Training Edith Halcombe was born on 27 April 1844 in the Hutt Valley, Wellington, New Zealand. She was the seventh child of William Swainson and his second wife, Anne Grasby. Her childhood was spent between the Hutt Valley and her father's estate in Rangitikei. Growing up in such an environment, she learned to sketch and paint from a young age. Her father, a competent artist in his own right, provided her early instruction. By the late 1850s, Edith Halcombe was producing pencil sketches that were copies of her father's drawings. She became so proficient at thi…