Robert Grossman was born in New York City in 1940. His father Joseph was a display artist who gave Robert his earliest training and sent him to Saturday morning art classes at the Museum of Modern Art. After attending public schools in Brooklyn he went to Yale where he was the editor of the Yale Record ("America's Oldest College Humor Magazine") and graduated with a B.A. in fine art in 1961.

After a brief stint as an assistant to New Yorker art director James Geraghty, Grossman launched himself as a freelance illustrator and cartoonist, his work featuring caricature and a satiric outlook. Early clients included Esquire and the New York Herald Tribune.

He has done cover illustrations for more than 500 issues of national magazines such as Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone and The New Republic. Today his work can be seen regularly in The Nation, The New York Times, The New York Observer, Natural History and the Yale Alumni Magazine.

He was nominated for a 1978 Academy Award for a brief animated film entitled Jimmy The C, and during the 1980's produced a number of animated television commercials. In 1979 he had a one-man show at the Vontobel Gallery in Zurich. His sculpture and paintings in oils have been widely exhibited in numerous group shows.

Grossman's home and studio are in New York's Soho district. He is twice divorced, with four children ? Michael, a painter, Alex, an actor, Leila, a photographer, and Annie, a writer -- and three grandchildren. Grossman's longtime companion is Elaine Louie, assistant to the editor of the Style Department of the New York Times, and the author of several books on food and design.