[1] Wear was born in London to a local women and a wine merchant's clerk from Yorkshire, who late became a newspaper correspondent.
[2] Wear was raised in Hackney and privately educated at Eastbourne before entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1896.
[3] During her five years at the Academy Schools, Wear won a silver medal for a painting of the draped figure.
[2] Subsequently, she combined teaching at the London County Council Central School of Arts and Crafts with an exhibition career that was noted for its portraits and figure studies.
[2][3] For a time, Wear lived at Blockley in Gloucestershire but moved between several locations in southern England during her life and died at Hove in East Sussex.