Fowler was born at Anstruther, near St Andrews, and studied at Heatherby's art school at London before settling in Liverpool. He remained there until 1903, his Castle Street studio becoming a focus for the city's artistic life. His style, based on ideal figure compositions and landscape, owed much to Leighton and Albert Moore, and like Moore he was strongly influenced by Japanese art, of which he formed a large collection. He exhibited at the Royal Academy (1876-1903), the Grosvenor and New Galleries, and the 'old' and 'new' Watercolour Societies, as well as achieving recognition in Paris and Munich. For a well-illustrated article on his work, see the Studio, 9, 1897, pp. 85-98.

His picture Eunoe, illustrated in Christopher Wood's Dictionary of Victorian Painters, 2nd ed., p. 598, was sold in these Rooms on 5 March 1993, lot 117