 Stansmore Richmond Leslie Dean was born in Glasgow on 3 June 1866, the youngest of six children of Jean Leslie and Alexander Davidson Dean (1814–1910).Her father was an artist and engraver from Aberdeen who co-founded the "Gilmour and Dean Ltd" printing company in 1846.She studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1883 to 1889 where her contemporaries included Bessie MacNicol and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.