John George Sowerby was born in Gateshead, England to a prosperous family who owned Ellison Glassworks. During the 1880s, Ellison Glassworks was the largest producer of pressed glass in the world. Despite his familial connections and potential inheritance, Sowerby had little interest in glassmaking and instead decided to take up a career as a painter. Sowerby’s paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy and his illustrations for children’s books were popular with the public. Sowerby did have some difficulties with his first children’s book, Afternoon Tea (1880), which was disputed by Kate Greenaway to be too similar in style to her bestselling book Under the Window (1879).
After this book, Sowerby, along with illustrator Thomas Crane, and Crane’s cousin, Elizabeth Houghton, published additional titles, At Home, Abroad, and At Home Again, which were well received and considered superior to Afternoon Tea.
Sowerby and his wife Amy Margaret had three sons and three daughters. His daughters Githa and Millicent Sowerby would grow up to excel in the arts as their father did. Githa Sowerby became a noted playwright and children’s book author who worked on publications with her sister, Millicent Sowerby, who worked as a children’s book illustrator.
(source: https://www.illustrationhistory.org/artists/john-george-sowerby)