Curtis was known for his pyrographic wood reliefs, carved in low relief and burnt for umbrous effect, usually in monochrome but sometimes with muted colour. Thus in his shadowed shallows his profiled figures have a stately grace and a sepulchral aura. In this careful symbolist drawing of the early 1900s, the hair of the figures is arranged like a hood over the two figures, similar to Simeon Solomon's drawings. The figures reminiscent of Levy-Dhurmer. Curtis's subjects are usually unspecific and don't have formal titles.

Curtis was born in Staten Island to an important American family; one of his uncles, George William Curtis, was a prominent abolitionist and co-founder of the Republican Party, and another, Edward Curtis, was one of the doctors to assist in the autopsy of President Abraham Lincoln.

An early teacher and mentor of Curtis’s was American artist Julius Rolshoven. At the age of 17, William, along with his sister Jane, travelled to Paris to study at the Académie Julian, where he studied under Jules-Joseph Lefebvre and Tony Robert Fleury, and in his final term was awarded first prize in drawing. After his studies, Curtis spent time travelling through Northern Italy, studying the old masters, before returning home in 1893. The Waterman Gallery at the Rhode Island School of Design held an exhibition of his Drawings and Decorations in February/March of 1909.