Harry Emerson Lewis was born on February 28, 1892 in Hutchinson, Kansas.
He died on August 17, 1958, at his home Santa Ana, California.

Harry Emerson Lewis was instructed in art by his father, Edward Henry Lewis, who was an accomplished artist.
He studied art at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois from 1912 through 1913.
During World War I he served in the US Army using his art training as a camouflage instructor. After the war, he spent three years in Italy and France studying in Florence, Milan, Rome, and at the famed Sorbonne art school in Paris.

In 1922, he returned to the United States and worked as a studio assistant for artist Alexander Robinson in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1923, he moved to Illinois where he taught art at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1924, he moved to California first settling in Hollywood, then in 1931, in San Francisco, and finally, in 1945, in Laguna Beach.

His professional memberships included the Bay Region Art Association; the Los Angeles Art Association; the Oakland Art Association; the Palette & Chisel Club of Chicago; the San Francisco Art Association; the Santa Cruz Art Association; the Society for Sanity in Art; and the Western Art Association.

Harry Emerson Lewis is listed in the art reference book Artists in California 1786 - 1940, by Edan Hughes. His body of work includes landscapes and seascapes in watercolors and oils.

The art of Harry Emerson Lewis is or has been exhibited in museums, galleries, and various venues including but not necessarily limited to the following:
Artists Fiesta competition, Los Angeles, CA (Awarded First Prize)
Beaux Arts, Paris, France
Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery, Bodega Bay, CA
California Historical Society, Los Angeles, CA
California State Fair - 1938
Delgado Museum, New Orleans, LA
El Dorado Hotel, Hollywood, CA
Grand Rapids Music College, Grand Rapids, MI
Jon Berg Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA
Jonathan Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of History, Science and Art, Los Angeles, CA
Palace of Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
Pasadena Art Monkeys, Pasadena, CA
Pete’s Antiques, Starke, FL
Roosevelt Hotel, Hollywood, CA
Whyte & Sons, Dublin, Ireland