Frank Weston Benson was born in Salem, Massachusetts on 24 March 1862 and raised at what is now 46 Washington Square. His father, an important cotton merchant, encouraged all of his children to participate in the smorgasbord of cultural activities that Salem had to offer in the late nineteenth century from Lyceum lectures to dance classes at Hamilton Hall, but drew the line when young Frank decided he wanted to pursue a career in art. His mother, a watercolorist, intervened and Benson enrolled at the new Museum School in Boston in the fall of 1880. At the Museum School Benson received a classical art foundation under the tutelage of Otto Grunderson and Frank Crowninshield. Benson then spent two years at the Académie Julian in Paris.

Benson returned to Salem in 1885 and then taught for two years at the Portland School of Art in Maine. By 1888 he was back in Salem and the following year he and Edward Tarbell were hired to teach at their alma mater, the Boston Museum School. Benson, an extremely popular teacher, would hold this position until 1912 and would remain involved with the school until 1930.

Benson remained an important part of the Boston art scene for half a century. He maintained a studio in the Back Bay and was a member of the Copley Society and a founder, and for 13 years President, of the Boston Guild of Artists. Benson routinely exhibited at the Boston Art Club and the St. Botolph's Club. In 1897, Benson became a charter member of the Ten American Painters. The group included some of America's most important Impressionists, including Childe Hassam, and reinforced Benson's move towards the impressionist style.

Paintings and etchings depicting sporting life dominated the non-figurative portion of Benson's artistic output. He was an avid fisherman and duck hunter who made annual trips to Canada to fish and maintained a hunting shack on Cape Cod. Most of his 300 plus etchings depict birds in flight, as did many his watercolors. Benson was wildly successful both financially and in terms of recognition. He was signed on by the MacBeth Gallery in New York in 1914 and eventually agreed to reduce their sales commission on his work just to keep him in their fold. Benson's work was so popular that from the 1920s on it was often sold while still on the easel. His income for the month January 1929, was $68,000, certainly enough to cover the mortgage on his new Chestnut Street home.

During his career, Benson won just about every major medal in America. His work was included in many of the era's most prestigious art shows and today can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Metropolitan Museum In New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and almost every other major museum in America.

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