Harry B. Lachman (1886-1975) had one of the most unusual dual careers in the history of American art, achieving distinction both as a Post-Impressionist painter working in France and as a Hollywood film director. Born in La Salle, Illinois, in 1886, he pursued his artistic training at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago before traveling to Paris in the early years of the twentieth century, drawn by the extraordinary artistic ferment of the French capital during the years surrounding the First World War.

Lachman quickly established himself within the vibrant international artistic community of Paris, adopting a Post-Impressionist style deeply informed by the great French landscape tradition. His paintings of French, Italian, and Spanish scenes are marked by their vibrant color, confident brushwork, and warm affection for the Mediterranean world he came to know intimately. His reputation grew rapidly, and in 1912 he was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government, an unusually early and significant recognition for a young American artist working abroad.

In an unexpected turn, Lachman was drawn into the world of cinema through his friendship with the pioneering film director Rex Ingram, whom he assisted on films made in France. This experience led to a substantial second career as a film director, and he returned to the United States to work in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s. He directed numerous studio pictures, including several entries in the Charlie Chan series and the 1935 film adaptation of Dante's Inferno, whose extraordinary hallucinatory sequence remains one of the most striking passages in American cinema of the period.

Lachman returned to full-time painting later in life and continued to produce work in his Post-Impressionist manner until his death. His pictures are held in French and American collections, and he is remembered today as a genuine transatlantic figure whose accomplishments in both painting and film place him within a small and distinguished group of American artists.