Born in Brighton England Arthur Musgrave was a pupil of Stanhope Forbes at the Newlyn School of Art in Cornwall. He also studied in Munich. He went to Santa Fe in 1916 to recover his health from having served in World War I and was the first to paint a depiction of the Museum of Fine Arts then under construction.
Later he donated several paintings to the Museum. He also spent time at Cape Cod Massachusetts where he had a summer house at Truro. His main residence remained in Santa Fe.
One of his works is in the British Embassy in Washington DC. His wife Helen Greene Musgrave was also an artist as were two of his daughters Rosie Musgrave Bothell and Barbara Brooke Musgrave Tuthill.