Born in Richmond, Surrey (1858), the artist emigrated to the United States at the age of seventeen and studied at the Art Students League in New York. He married English-born artist Florence Francis in 1888. It is believed that the couple first went to Bucks County, PA  to visit the Lathrops in 1898. A member of the New Hope School's first generation, he became an eminent landscape artist, noted for his dock scenes of St Ives in his father's native Cornwall, although he painted many American subjects, as well.

A much loved instructor at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, now the Moore College of Art and Design, from 1899 to 1943, Snell often took his students to St Ives in summer for painting holidays. The St Ives Times reports him as 'staying in the town at the moment' during July 1914;  they mention that he is an American and has brought 20 pupils with him. A picture of the artist can be found on Bucks County Artists interactive database: James A Michener Art Museum library. He died on January 17, 1943 in New Hope, Pennsylvania.