Robert Mols began his artistic education at the Antwerp Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and later in 1866 he moved to Paris where he studied under Jean François Millet and Jules Dupré. Mols, an excellent draughtsman and a brilliant colorist often delighted in rendering the marvellous effects of wide horizon-lines and the changing moods of the sea. He was awarded the Cross of the Order of Léopold in 1879 and in 1900 he was made a chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.