George Adolphus Storey, son of James Payne Storey, was born in London on January 7, 1834. He moved to Paris with his elder brother, William, at age fourteen, in order to study painting and complete his education; there, he trained with Jean Louis Delong. Near the end of 1849, Storey returned to London and began to study under the English artist James Mathews Leigh. He exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1852-53, and was accepted to the Royal Academy schools in 1854. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood influenced much of Storeys early work, though his subject matter was criticized as too much and too varied. His early paintings, such as The Brides Burial (1859), were so promising that some considered him a rival to Millais. However, Storey later abandoned Pre-Raphaelitism, which he felt was not a lucrative approach to painting.During the 1850s Storey lived at his parents' home at 12 Marlborough Place, and became acquainted with the future members of the St. Johns Wood Clique, including his future brother-in-law, Philip Hermogenes Calderon. After traveling in Spain in 1863, Storey became a founding member of the Clique. He met lifelong friends there, and the artists traveled together occasionally; they remained friends even when Storey no longer officially qualified as a member because he had moved away from St. Johns Wood. In his early adulthood, Storey had a relationship with a woman named Frances, or Fanny (c. 18431914). They never married, but in 1866 had a son they named Robert Oliver Storey. They lived together for most of the 1870s, but ultimately separated in 1877. Afterward, Storey fled back to St. Johns Wood to live near his old friends at 19 St. Johns Wood Road.In 1876, the Royal Academy elected Storey as an associate, and he began teaching perspective. He traveled around Europe giving lectures on the subject, but occasionally presented them in his own home. In 1882, Storey met his future wife, Emily Hayward (d. 1940), who often posed for his pictures. She is pictured in Storeys Artists at Home portrait by J. P. Mayall in 1884, and in another albumen print by an unknown photographer taken in 1883, in which she seated beside Storey in the garden, apparently wearing the same dress and hat. In 1886, Storey had his first child with Emily, a daughter named Mary Gladys Storey (d. 1978), who eventually became an actress. Storey himself died at his Hampstead home, 39 Broadhurst Gardens, at the age of 85.