Portrait of Elsie Esther Cornish, aged 7, seated at a table with her doll and tea set

Born in St Helier in 1864 to the son of a boot maker, Lander showed promise as a painter from an early age and was given his first 'real box of paints' by the actress Lillie Langtry. At the age of 16 he travelled to London with an introduction to John Everett Millais (1829-1896), studying first at Frank Calderon's school of animal painting in Hampstead and then at the Royal Academy Schools. Returning to Jersey in 1892 he became art master at the Ladies College and set up a studio in St Helier. He became a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy of Jersey subjects, specialising in portraiture, painting local Jersey people as well as many of the First World War's leading military figures.

Elsie Esther Cornish, daughter of James and Esther Cornish, was born at Samares, St. Clement, Jersey on the 31st October 1882. She married Henry Le Couteur in 1906.