The son of a Broadway stage manager, Frank Joseph Reilly was born August 21, 1906, in New York City.
"I had boned up for this important event by studying art pose number one, the front view, using Mr. Bridgman's book as a source of information".
In 1947 he completed a series of twelve historical painting for the Continental Distilling Corporation that were released as lithographs and print ads.
Reilly created murals for the Bronx High School of Science and the Johnson City Courthouse in Tennessee.
His painting instructor Frank Vincent DuMond attended the Académie Julian, where he studied under artists Gustave Boulanger and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre.
In the early 1960s he left the League to establish the Frank J. Reilly School of Art in the nearby Steinway Hall Building at 111 West 57th Street.
Richard A Botto, Gerald Allison, Michael Aviano, James Bama, Raphael Eisenberg, Basil Gogos, Jack Faragasso, Fred Fixler, Gordon Johnson, Carl Hantman, Doug Higgins, Clark Hulings, Ronnie Lesser, Frank Liljegren, Peter Max, Gerald McConnell, George Passantino, Charles Reid, Leonard Starr, Ralph Garafola, Donald Martinetti and Robert Emil Schulz are among them.