Hume Nisbet was a painter, illustrator, and author. He was born in Stirling, and he studied art under Sam Bough. From the age of sixteen he spent seven years exploring Australia and was appointed on his return to the position of Master of the Watt College of Art and Old Schools of Art, Edinburgh. In 1885 he was sent by Cassell & Co, to New Guinea, and in 1905-6 he visited China and Japan. In the later part of his life he concentrated on writing novels. He was the father of the artist Noel Laura Nisbet.