"... was born at Crutched Friars near the Tower of London, the son of J. C. H. Martens, a German merchant from Hamburg who had been appointed Austrian consul to London, where he married an Englishwoman. When his consular term expired Martens set up as a merchant in London. His three sons became artists. Conrad Martens received his training in landscape painting from Copley Fielding, who was the most popular teacher of his time. From him Martens learned the principles of picture-making which stood by him in his later isolation in Australia. After his father's death in 1816 the family moved to Exeter whence Martens practised his water-colour painting in the Devonshire landscape..." Douglas Dundas, for full article see  Australian Dictionary of Biography.