Robert Harris was born at Vale of Conway, Wales. Harris enjoyed music, books, and painting. At the age of twenty-seven he went to Slade School which was run by the Frenchman, Alphonse Legros.
Three months later he was encouraged by a schoolmate from Boston, Legros, and his mom to go to Paris to become a painter. After finishing school, he left for Toronto realizing that Toronto was the center of art during the year 1879. In Toronto, he encouraged
young painters to go to Paris to study art. During this period he sent a few pictures to the Salon and to his surprise they were hung. Here in Toronto he taught drawing in a local art school by showing his students the French method of picture making.
Around 1883 he mastered the techniques of history drawing. Because of Harris's skills in history painting he was asked to paint the portrait titled "The Fathers of Confederation." Unfortunately the painting was burned during a fire at the Parliament
Buildings in Ottawa during the First World War. All that was left of this richness of the oil sketch was his original cartoon and preparatory sketches which took him about two years to complete.
