A native of Seattle, Washington, James Herbert FitzGerald earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934 from the University of Washington (UW). Following graduation, he worked at the Art Center School in Los Angeles before heading to Mexico where he studied mural painting under the Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco (summers of 1935-1936). FitzGerald studied at the Kansas City Art Institute under Thomas Hart Benton and later taught classes. He also taught at the Colorado Springs Fine Art Center where he formed working relations with Henry Varnum Poor and Boardman Robinson. In 1938, FitzGerald assisted Robinson on a series of murals for the Department of Justice. He went on to study for a year at Yale after he was awarded a Carnegie Foundation Fellowship. He lived for a time in New York City where he worked on federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) projects.

Following a return to Seattle in 1939, FitzGerald assumed a position at the University of Washington teaching painting. In 1940, he married fellow artist, Margaret Tomkins (1916-2002) who was working at the time as an assistant professor at UW.