Born in Florence, Italy, Newman was a Pre-Raphaelite landscape and still-life painter. His specialty subjects were religious architectural structures, floral pictures, and views of endangered historical landmarks. Many of his paintings were of Egypt where he lived much of his life, as well as Italy, where he specialized in ecclesiastical masterpieces of architecture.

In 1877 Newman received considerable praise from Ruskin, and as a newly appointed Ruskin protégé, demand for his work increased. Much of that demand was for more monumental pictures than the usual small scale exactitude of the Pre-Raphaelites. This accounts for the artist's shift to larger formats during the eighties and even some attempts at oil painting. Fiesole, 1888 while not among the largest of the works from this decade, does exhibit the same compositional philosophy incorporating a highly detailed foreground with a panoramic vista that is equally detailed. A scheme of such grand scope came to characterize the eighties, arguably Newman's finest period as an expatriate artist.