Frank Hector Tompkins was born in upstate New York, but grew up in Ohio, later enrolling at the Cincinnati Academy of Design. He also attended the Art Students League in New York City and, like many artists of his generation, traveled abroad from 1882 to 1887, studying at the Royal Academy in Munich. There he was awarded two first place prizes for painting in 1884 and 1885. Upon his return to America in 1887, Tompkins opened a studio in Boston and joined the Boston Art Club, participating in group exhibitions over the next three decades.