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Derwent Wood was born in Keswick, Cumberland. He was taken to live in Germany while still young and studied in Lausanne and Karlsruhe before he returned to London in 1887 to study at the Royal College of Art under Edouard Lanteri. Two years later he was able to take a post as assistant to Legros at the Slade School and was there until 1893 when he entered the Royal Academy Schools. In 1895 he won the gold medal and travelling scholarship with his group, Dedalus and Icarus. He taught at Glasgow School of Art, 1897-1905, and was Professor of Sculpture at the Royal College of Art, 1918-1923. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1920. He produced a good deal of architectural sculpture including four large roof figures for the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, the British Linen Bank also in Glasgow and the Britannic House in London for architect Sir Edwin Lutyens. Freestanding sculptures by him may be seen in various galleries, including his Atalanta (1907, Manchester City Art Gallery) with a bronze cast of it now in Chelsea Embankment Gardens.