Horatio Walker was born in 1858 in midwestern Ontario. His formal schooling ended at the Listowel Public School in 1872; he never went on to pursue formal academic training in art. At the age of 15, Walker moved to Toronto to apprentice with the photographic firm Notman and Fraser. It was a fortunate opportunity, as several successful artists worked also there; Walker learned watercolour from Robert Gagnon, miniature portrait painting from John Fraser, and painting from Lucius O’Brien and Henri Perre.
Walker was a member of several artists' organizations, including the American Watercolor Society, the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, the Society of American Artists, the National Academy of Design, and the British Institute of Watercolours. He was a founding member of the Canadian Art Club, which elected him as its president in 1915. In 1928 he officially retired and moved to Sainte-Petronille, Quebec, where he died in 1938.
