Self-taught painter and printmaker James McBey was born on December 23, 1883 in Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He became a bank clerk at the age of fifteen and in his spare time he taught himself how to create etchings on zinc plates, using Maxime Lalanne's book on etching, Traité de la Gravure a l'Eau-Forte and taking night courses at Gray's School of Art to hone his drawing skills. In 1910 he traveled to the Netherlands to study the works of Dutch Old Masters, and then embraked on a journey throughout Europe, the United States, and North Africa, recording the places he visited in drawings, paintings, and etchings.

In 1911, he exhibited at the Goupil Gallery in London and his prints were published in both London and Glasgow. As World War I approached his attempts to enlist in the army were thwarted by nearsightedness and he was instead given a position with the Army Printing and Stationary Service in Rouen, France. Drawings he created while stationed there led to his appointment as official war artist to the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, creating over 300 oil paintings, drawings, and watercolors, many of which now hang in the Imperial War Museum. Finding great inspiration in the culture and landscapes of the Middle East and North Africa, he made several visits thereafter.

By the 1920s his etchings began to sell at an accelerated price, among the highest of any British printmaker at the time, and he was also commissions to paint a number of formal portraits, including Emir Faisal, T.E. Lawrence, and Sir Harry Lauder. He was featured by Malcolm Salaman in the second volume of the series Modern Masters of Etching. Salaman also compiled a catalogue of his work, published in 1929. After marrying American photographer and bookbinder Marguerute Loeb in 1931 he divided his time between Britain and the U.S.

The work of James McBey is held by the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Huntington Library, California; and by the Aberdeen Art Gallery where the McBey Art Reference Library was established in his name in 1961. There is an lmost complete collection of McBey's work at the Boston Public Library.

James McBey died on December 1, 1959 in Tangier, Morocco.