Julian Russell Story was born in 1857 in Walton-upon-Thames, England. He received his education at Eton and Oxford and later studied art in Munich, Germany, and Paris, France. He was a celebrated portrait artist in his day, earning a third-class medal and honorable mention at the Paris salons, as well as a gold medal in Berlin. Additionally, in 1900, Story received the Legion of Honor, the order of the Chevalier, in Paris.

He married a celebrated singer Emme Eames in 1891 after painting her portrait, though she divorced him in 1907. In 1909 he remarried in London to Elaine Sartori Bohlen and the two would have three children together. With his second wife, he spent the remainder of his life splitting his time between Philadelphia, PA, and Vallambrosa, Italy until 1919 when he died of cancer at a hospital in Philadelphia.