William S. Horton was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1865 and was raised in North Dakota. His first art-related job was as an illustrator for "Northwest Magazine." Disinherited by his family because of his commitment to art, he studied first at the Art Institute of Chicago and then at the Art Student's League and the National Academy of Design in New York. He married in 1892, and the couple went to Paris where he enrolled in the Academy Julian and where they lived the remainder of their lives, becoming very active in the American-French art community and exhibiting regularly in the salons.

Horton was a wealthy man, and a friend of famous artists Monet, Degas, and Derain and exhibited at some of the most well known art galleries of New York and Paris.  He even decided to paint the mountains of Gstaad at different times of the day, just as Monet did with the Cathedral at Rouen.  After his early Paris exhibitions he rarely allowed his works to be sold.  He returned to New York City in 1924, but continued to travel throughout the world.  When he died, his estate contained more than 1,000 oil paintings, pastel drawings, and watercolors.  He was best known for his landscape paintings.