James Taylor Harwood was the son of English immigrants who settled in Lehi, Utah. Harwood was born there in 1860. He grew up with a great desire to be an artist, and studied in Salt Lake City. When he was 25 years old, he went to California to study at the School of Design in San Francisco. Three years later, he went to Paris to further his studies with the support of the LDS Church. During his life he produced many works on religious subjects, as well as those of the things of nature that captured his soul. Harwood had great talent and did much to bring Utah's artistic production on to the international stage.