Stuart Somerville was a British painter. Born in Yorkshire in 1908, Somerville began to explore his interest in painting under the instruction of his father. The artist showed an aptitude for painting at a very early age. In 1925, at the age of seventeen, Somerville was one of the youngest artists to exhibit at the Royal Academy, a practice which would continue for over thirty-five years. In 1934, Somerville participated in a year-long expedition to East Africa with the British Museum which encouraged his often painted, but never exhibited, interest in the female form. Instead, Somerville was particularly well regarded for his rich, vibrant still life studies of flowers.

In the mid-1940s, Somerville moved to Suffolk, where he lived and worked until the later years of his life. The lush rural surroundings inspired his later landscape works, though an emphasis on the bright and colourful flower studies for which he was known continued late in to his career. Somerville was a member of the Ipswich Art Club between the years of 1946 – 1966. He exhibited regularly with the Fine Art Society, London, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters and the Royal Scottish Academy. The artist died in 1983.