Edward Ertz was born in Illinois, USA. He started his artistic career in Chicago, aged 15, as an engraver. He then moved to New Orleans and subsequently to New York, adding etching to his skills.

In 1888 he left America to study in Paris. From 1893 to 1897 he was Professor of Watercolour at the Academy Delecluse, Paris. Here he met an English art student, Ethel HORSFALL, whom he married in 1894. The couple decided to settle in Polperro, where they opened the Polperro School of Painting. Polperro was the birthplace of their two children. Both husband and wife exhibited from there and at the RA. In 1902 Ertz contributed an illustrated article on the relatively new technique of monotyping to an edition of The Studio.

By 1905 the family had moved to Devon, where they set up a painting school in Yealmpton, and later one near Kingsbridge. This was followed by a move to Pulborough in Sussex. Ethel died from a stroke in 1919 and in 1929 Edward remarried. He died in Petersfield in 1954.