Wilfred de Glehn (1870-1951) was born Wilfred Gabriel von Glehn in Sydenham, England, a suburb of South London. He began his education at Brighton College and continued his studies at the Royal College of Art in South Kensington. His mother was French and allowed him to stay with relatives in France where he completed his formal arts education at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His father, Alexander von Glehn, was a coffee importer and also helped build the narrow-gauge railways in France. 

While a student at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1895, Wilfred met John Singer Sargent. The two were introduced through mutual friend, Edwin Austin Abbey. Abbey hired de Glehn to assist Sargent with the Boston Public Library mural, Frieze of the Prophets. They developed a long lasting friendship sharing fundamental, cosmopolitan views. 

In 1903, de Glehn traveled to the United States to aid in the installation of the Boston Library panels. While in the US he met Jane Emmet who later became his wife. Ms. Emmet came from a very distinguished family of artists. In 1896 she had traveled to Europe where she studied with American sculptor and painter, Frederick MacMonnies. 

From 1904-1914 the de Glehns traveled extensively with Sargent throughout Venice, Florence Switzerland and Spain. However, soon after World War I began, their travels came to an end as they put their energies towards the Allied War efforts. 

De Glehn was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1923 and in 1932 he was made full Academician. During that time he practiced as a portrait painter, traveling to the United States annually for commissions. 

In 1941 the de Glehns' home and studios of nearly forty years at Cheyne Walk were destroyed by a parachute bomb, which hit the neighboring Old Church in Chelsea. Having spent many of the months since the war had been declared with Wilfred's brother in Grantchester, near Cambridge, any plans to return home to London were now impossible. With so many of their old friends gone from the area too, including Sargent, the de Glehns moved permanently to their new home in Stratford Tony, not far from the house they had been renting at Wilton in Wiltshire.