Painter and printmaker Frederick "Fritz" Goodrich Robbins was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on May 8, 1893. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area around 1920. There, he enrolled in classes at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) and opened a studio in his home in San Francisco. 

Robbins lived for a time in Los Angeles in the late 1920s and early '30s before returing to the Bay Area. By 1940 he had relocated to Westborough, Massachusetts, where he remained until his death in 1974. 

He was a member of the California Society of Etchers and the League of New Hampshire Arts and Grafts. He exhibited with the San Francisco Art Association in 1921, and in 1999 the New Hampton School in New Hampshire held an exhibition of his works on the anniversary of his death, "Fritz Robbins: A Retrosepctive". According to the New Hampshire Historical Society, Robbins produced etchings for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Queen of Holland.