Most scholars list Pinckney Marcius-Simons' birth date as 1867, but some art historians assert that he was born in 1865. A New York City native, visionary symbolist painter Pinckney Marcius-Simons spent most of his adult life in Europe, having been taken there as a baby by his parents. He did not return until he was age 25. He was especially known for the high coloration of his paintings. Marcius-Simons was a visionary Symbolist artist, his subject matter included Gothic cathedrals, dramatic skyscapes, and heroic figures such as "Apotheosis of Joan of Arc", "Flower Fairies", "Guardian Angels" and "Parsifal and the Knights".

Marcius-Simons began studying art at the age of twelve and took formal training at the Vaugirard College in Paris with J.G. Vibert (1840-1902). Early in his career, his primary subject was sentimental genre and history, which he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1882, but later he turned to idealistic, poetic works influenced by J.M.W. Turner and French Symbolism. However, he did not follow the established guidelines of the leaders of the Symbolists but incorporated aspects that suited his imagination and talents. The music of Richard Wagner was very inspirational to Marcius-Simons, who painted a series based on the opera "The Nibelung Rhing." In this series "he tried to orchestrate his pictures as a musician scores". (Falk 2180). He worked as a set designer at the Wagner Theater in Bayreuth, Germany, where he died in 1909.