Francis Lathrop was a pupil of the painter T. C. Farrer in New York City, and then studied art at the Royal Academy of Dresden in what was then the German Empire.

However, soon after his arrival in England, the family's financial problems forced Lathrop to return to New York City.

In 1870, dissatisfied with the attention he was receiving from Whistler, Lathrop began working with[2] the painters Ford Madox Brown and Edward Coley Burne-Jones.

He also studied in the school of designer William Morris, where he devoted particular attention to stained glass.

[3] Lathrop was a charter member of the Society of American Artists, and became an associate of the National Academy of Design in New York.