Lisa Stillman was the child of William J. Stillman and his first wife, Laura Mack. After her mother's death, Lisa was raised by William Stillman's second wife, the Pre-Raphaelite artist Marie Spartali. She enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art for a year, and was also tutored by George Frederick Watts.
When the family moved to Rome in 1886, she studied with Ernest Hebert at the French Academy in that city. Through Hebert she came to know the landscape painter Giovanni Costa, the leader of a group of Italian and British landscape painters who have since come to be known as the Etruscans. From this group a second society of painters was formed, who exhibited primarily in Italy, known as In Arte Libertas.
Lisa Stillman was active in artistic circles socially in both London and the United States.
