Lily Harmon

Harmon studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts, the Académie Colarossi in Paris, and the Art Students League of New York. She often sketched people going about their daily lives but also studied textile design. In the 1930s, she employed a Social Realist style and made sensitive portraits of relatives and artist friends like painter Helen Frankenthaler. Harmon illustrated books by Andre Gide, Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Edith Wharton.

Harmon was a professor of painting at the National Academy of Design from 1974 until her retirement. Harmon is represented in collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum, Jewish Museum, and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.