Painter, printmaker, draughtsman and writer, Frank Lewis Emanuel was born in London and attended the Slade School of Fine Art under Alphonse Legros. Emanuel then studied under W A Bouguereau at the Académie Julian in Paris. From the late 1880s Emanuel began to exhibit at the Royal Academy, London, and Paris Salon. He continued exhibiting his work extensively in London at the New English Art Club, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolors, and a number of commercial galleries. Emanuel pursued a varied career, travelling widely in Europe, Africa and Ceylon. He published art criticism and topographical drawings in newspapers and magazines; and he taught etching at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, from 1918 to 1930. He wrote a number of articles for Walker's Quarterly and books on art, his most popular being The Illustrators of Montmartre and Etching and Etchings.