Robert Fowler was a Scottish painter born in 1853 in Anstruther, Fife. Fowler spent his childhood in Liverpool and received commercial training before studying at the Heatherley School of Fine Art in London and the South Kensington Schools.

Fowler was a self-taught artist who furthered his education by visiting London museums. He was influenced by James McNeill Whistler and Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.

Due to health problems, he temporarily lived in Yorkshire and Llandudno in Wales before becoming a freelance artist in Liverpool.

Fowler sent his work to exhibitions at the London Royal Academy, the Royal Society of British Artists, the London New Water Color Society, and the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool. Robert Fowler exhibited in Paris and Munich.

In 1891, Fowler became an honorary member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colors. Fowler returned to London in 1903 and continued to paint until his death in 1926 in New Ferry.

The artist Robert Fowler passed away in 1926 in New Ferry.