Percy Wyndham Lewis was born November 18, 1882, near Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada, to Captain Charles Edward Lewis of New York and Anne Stuart of Great Britain. It was said that he was born on a yacht in Canadian waters, hence his Canadian heritage. In 1893 his parents separated, and he moved with his mother to London where he attended school and showed an aptitude for drawing. At the age of sixteen he enrolled in the Slade School of Art in London where he spent three years studying art.

Following his formal education, Lewis left for Europe and between 1901 and 1909, he traveled through Germany, Spain, France and Holland though most of his time was spent studying art in Paris and writing.

Lewis returned to England in 1909, and that same year saw three of his stories published in the English Review. While pursuing his literary career, Lewis continued to draw and paint and create a large number works. In 1911 his drawings were exhibited with the Camden Town Group, and in 1912 he had works in the Post-Impressionist exhibition in London. Lewis joined a number of art groups but never felt accepted and often clashed with other group members.

He continued to paint and exhibit and in 1913 took part in the Post-Impressionist and Futurist exhibition, in London where he met with other artists and the following year founded his own art group and spawned a movement entitled Vorticism (Named by Ezra Pound)

Lewis served as a war artist in World War I, which had a profound effect on both his art and his writing. His first novel, Tarr, was published after the war in 1918 and in 1919 he attempted to revive Vorticism under the name X Group, which held one exhibition in 1920.

After this time Lewis was not connected with any art groups, but he continued painting and exhibiting his work, in addition to publishing books and articles. He spent the years of World War II in the United States and Canada, but returned to England in 1945. In 1946 he became the art critic of the “Listener”, a publication in London.