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Lily Harmon Paintings

1912-1998

Lily Harmon, whose original name was Lily Perlmutter, was born in 1912 in New Haven. She studied art at the Yale School of Art in New Haven, then at the Académie Colarossi in Paris and the Art Students League in New York. By the early 1930s, she was working in a Social Realist style that with adjustments would be the mainstay of her work. Ms. Harmon's art could lean toward social satire similar to Philip Evergood, or scenes of poetic introspection, like some of Philip Guston's early works. But it usually followed a tradition of sympathetic portraiture personified by Raphael Soyer, becoming increasingly refined in the 1970s. Her subjects tended to be relatives or art-world friends like her grandmother, the painter Helen Frankenthaler, Mimi Gross and the mother of her first husband, Philip Graham Harden, shown in a work from 1931 titled My Nude Mother-in-Law. Lily Harmon had her first solo exhibition at the Associated American Artists Gallery in New York in 1944. She met the millionaire Joseph Hirshhorn, one of the most active art collectors of his generation, in the early 1940s when he visited her studio to see her paintings. They were married in 1945 and adopted two infant daughters, in 1946 and 1950. The marriage ended in divorce in 1956. Ms. Harmon exhibited regularly in surveys of contemporary American art in museums across the country, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington and the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh. In 1982, a 50-year retrospective organized by the Wichita Art Museum in Kansas traveled to the Provincetown Art Association in Massachusetts and the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. In December, the Butler Institute mounted a second show, devoted to the found-object assemblages and collages that Ms. Harmon made intermittently in the 1960s and 70s. Lily Harmon is represented in public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Jewish Museum in New York City, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington. From 1945–76, Lily Harmon illustrated books, most notably works by André Gide, Jean-Paul Sartre, Thomas Mann, Edith Wharton and Franz Kafka. Freehand, her autobiography, was published in 1981 by Simon & Schuster. She died on February 11, 1998, in New York.

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Artist: Lily Harmon
“Woman with Rose” Lily Harmon, Female American Modernism Mid-century
“Woman with Rose” Lily Harmon, Female American Modernism Mid-century

“Woman with Rose” Lily Harmon, Female American Modernism Mid-century

By Lily Harmon

Located in New York, NY

Lily Harmon (1912 - 1998) Woman with Rose Ink and gouache on board 23 x 19 inches Lily Harmon, was an artist who worked in portraiture, assemblage and book illustration, and whose ...

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Mid-20th Century American Modern Lily Harmon Paintings

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Mid Century Portrait of Actress Paula Laurence - Wife of Joseph Hirshhorn
Mid Century Portrait of Actress Paula Laurence - Wife of Joseph Hirshhorn

Mid Century Portrait of Actress Paula Laurence - Wife of Joseph Hirshhorn

By Lily Harmon

Located in Miami, FL

Quick and loose expressionist portrait of stage and screen actress Paula Laurence Portrait of Paula Laurence (1916-2005). Oil and graphite on linen. Signed top right. Exhibited: "Lil...

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1950s Expressionist Lily Harmon Paintings

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Canvas, Oil, Graphite

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Lily Harmon paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Lily Harmon paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Lily Harmon in paint, board, canvas and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Lily Harmon paintings, so small editions measuring 9 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Harold Haydon, Ben-Zion Weinman, and William Harnden. Lily Harmon paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,850 and tops out at $3,500, while the average work can sell for $3,175.