Arthur J. Merrill was born on April 11, 1885 in St. Louis, Missouri. He did not study art at an early age he tried the profession as a pharmacist and then decided to specialize in chemistry and geology. Visiting art museums and galleries around the world brought him to his interest in art. He began working under A. J. Musgrove of Winnipeg and Franz Johnson of Toronto, then his studies took him to New York’s Art Student League, of which he became a life member. He moved to Taos in 1946 to stay for a month but somehow the spell of the land let him to stay on. He passed away on April 21, 1973 in Santa Fe, New Mexico.