Harry Lachman, a former magazine illustrator, embarked on an artistic journey to Paris in 1911, where he soon gained recognition as a preeminent post-Impressionist painter. For his outstanding contributions to the art world, the French government bestowed upon him a prestigious decoration. Subsequently, Lachman transitioned into the world of set design at a film studio in Nice.
In 1925, American director Rex Ingram recruited him as an assistant director on the film Mare Nostrum (1926). This marked the beginning of Lachman's departure from his painting career, as he traveled to England to pursue a new path as a film director. He subsequently returned to France, where he produced several films before venturing to the United States in 1933 and settling in Hollywood.
Lachman's Hollywood career primarily consisted of B-pictures, but his most notable works include the Laurel and Hardy comedy Our Relations (1936) and Dante's Inferno (1935),in which his painter's eye shone brightly in the intense ten-minute hell sequence. He concluded his career with a Charlie Chan movie in the 1940s, after which he returned to his first love, painting.
Today, Lachman's artworks can be admired in esteemed institutions such as Spain's Prado Museum and the Luxembourg Museum, a testament to his enduring legacy as a talented artist.
