Painter and etcher Robert Bledsoe Mayfield was born in Carlinville, Illinois, and attended school in Germany and Switzerland. He received his art training at the St. Louis Academy of Art and at the Julien Academy in Paris, where he studied with Leopold Flameng and Gabriel Ferrier. After serving a short apprenticeship as artist for the St. Louis Dispatch, Mr. Mayfield came to New Orleans in 1891 to serve as Assistant Editor for the arts at the New Orleans Times-Picayune. He remained in New Orleans for the remainder of his life, producing portraits and landscapes in oil, together with a significant body of etchings depicting architectural scenes, particularly of old New Orleans. His work was exhibited in St. Louis, Boston, Paris, and New York. Mayfield died in New Orleans.