James Wells Champney was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He first encountered craftsmanship when he apprenticed as a wood engraver at age sixteen but his work was interrupted by the onset of the Civil War (1861-1865). Champney left engraving for soldiering, fighting in Gettysburg and other battles.

After the war he returned to school to learn drawing and painting, studying in the United States and Europe. In 1873, he and a collaborator traveled the American South for Scribner’s Monthly, making more than 500 sketches for a publication called The Great South.

In 1877, he became a professor of art at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he taught for seven years. His pastel portraits made him famous, and after his years at Smith he moved to New York City where he continued his work. By the time of his death at age sixty Champney was considered one of the world’s best pastel artists.