He was born in
Dundee, where his father William Bell was a tanner, businessman and banker;
James Stanislaus Bell was his brother. He studied at the
University of Edinburgh, and then went to London where he was a pupil of
Martin Archer Shee. Bell studied under
Antoine-Jean Gros in Paris, and was in Rome for over a year from 1825. He was portrait painter to
Maria II of Portugal, and assistant to
David Wilkie. He married Jane Graham Hay Campbell in 1831. Bell became head of the
Manchester School of Design when it was set up in 1838. He resigned in 1843 and was succeeded by
George Wallis. ==Works==