Frank Weston Benson was born in Salem, Massachusetts on March 24, 1862. At age sixteen, he decided he wanted to become an artist and went to study at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. For his 21th birthday Benson received a ticket to Paris from his parents so he could enroll at the Académie Julian. It was in Paris, the heart of artistic Europe, that Benson fell in love with Impressionism.

After Benson's return to Boston (America), he married his childhood friend Ellie Pierson. He settled and became a succesful portrait painter. With his paintings, he inspired many others to what would become known as the Boston School of Impressionism.

Throughout his career, Frank Weston Benson was an art teacher, first at Portland (Maine) and later at the famous Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Benson then became a member of the American art group 'The Ten', all inspired by American Impressionism. He then developed his best known style, painting informal portraits of his own family and using brilliant colors and pure whites.

Frank Weston Benson died in his home in Salem on November 15, 1951.