Painter and etcher James Craig Nicoll was born in New York City, and studied painting under the Dutch-American painter Mauritz de Haas, concentrating on New England coastal scenes. He exhibited his work at the Art Institute of Chicago, The National Academy of Design, and The Boston Art Club; his work was also shown at the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago, the 1889 Paris Exhibition, and the St. Louis Exposition of 1904. Nicoll was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1880 and became a full member in 1885. He also was a founding member of the American Watercolor Society. His work is held in numerous private and institutional collections, including those of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Smithsonian Institution, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. He died in Norwalk, Connecticut.