Robert Patterson was born in Chicago and attended the Chicago Art Institute. Among his teachers there and later were Harvey Dunn, Walt Louderback, Ralph Barton, Pierre Brissaud, and Carl Erickson.

Patterson began his professional career in Chicago, and for some time, directed the Patterson studios there with his brother Loran. In 1922, he came to New York and began doing fashion illustration.

Judge magazine sent him to France in 1924 to do a feature entitled “Betty Goes Abroad.” When Judge failed in 1927, he managed to obtain a fashion illustration assignment from Vogue in Paris, where he stayed until 1934.

Upon his return to the United States, he began to do editorial illustrations for the major ma...