Born in Port Adelaide, Australia on February 22, 1855, Menpes attended art classes as a young man and in 1975, married Rosa Mary Grosse. The couple had a son and two daughters, one of whom, Dorothy Whistler Menpes, was artist James McNeil Whistler's namesake and goddaughter.
After moving to England with his family in 1878, Menpes continued his art studies at the Royal College of Art, South Kensington, and exhibited at a Royal Academy exhibition for the first time in 1880. It was