Frederick Challener was born in Whetstone, England and moved to Canada with his parents in 1870. He returned to England in 1876 but came back to Toronto again in 1883. He started working as an office boy for a stockbroker firm and would sketch passers by in his spare time. He later went on to work at a Lithographing company in Toronto. He studied during the night at the Ontario School of Art under G. A. Reid and in 1890 he held his first exhibition at the Royal Canadian Academy. His paintings were typically done in oil and would often be in a romantic realistic style. He went on to teach at the Central Ontario College of Art and completed numerous mural commissions throughout Ontario's larger venues.