Robert Nettleton Field was born in Bromley, Kent, England, on 3 March 1899. His father, Horace Banks Field, was an insurance clerk and would have liked his eldest son to follow suit, but Robert showed artistic ability from an early age and his mother, Constance Emily Field (née Nettleton), nurtured this interest. Her grandfather had been a portrait painter and provided an early role model for Robert.

After winning various scholarships to art schools at Bromley and Southend-on-Sea between 1914 and 1919, Field was awarded a Royal Exhibition and entered the Royal College of Art in London in September 1919. He spent five years there and made the study of the figure his chief aim in whatever medium he was using. He ga...