William Crothers Fitler was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts. He is best known for his tonalist landscapes of New York, Long Island and Connecticut. Primarily a watercolorist, Fitler was one of the artists commissioned to work on The Picturesque Atlas of Australasia, an ambitious 800-page catalogue of Australian history and geography. He travelled to Australia with Frederick B. Schell and William Thomas Smedley from 1884 to 1888, creating illustrations for the Atlas and painting scenes of New Zealand as well.

Fitler was a member of the Salmagundi Club, New York Watercolor Club, Brooklyn Art Association, Artists Fund Society and New York Municipal Art Society. He exhibited widely, including at the National Academy of Design, the Brooklyn Art Club, the Boston Art Club, the Pennsylvania Academy and the Art Institute of Chicago.