Pinkney Near was born in New York City and was raised in Baltimore, Maryland. In 1944 he graduated from St. Paul's School, and in 1950 he became the first art history graduate of Johns Hopkins University. He earned his Master's degree from Harvard in 1951, and he studied French Romanesque sculpture in Paris for three years on a Fulbright scholarship. He remained in Europe an additional year for research on a Sachs fellowship.