Sir William MacTaggart was born in Loanhead, Midlothian, and was the grandson of the landscape painter William McTaggart. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art between 1918-21 and there became friends with Anne Redpath, William Gillies and William Crozier. Between 1923 and the start of the Second World War, MacTaggart was a frequent visitor to France and he had his first one-man exhibition at the St Andrew's Scottish Church, Cannes, in 1924. After the war he returned to Scotland where he continued to teach part-time at Edinburgh College of Art until 1956.