Perkins Harnly

Perkins Harnly (1901–1986) was an artist with the Federal Art Project's Index of American Design.

He was born in Ogallala, Nebraska, and traveled to Los Angeles in 1922 and to New York in 1928, where he began painting the watercolors of Victorian interiors that were typical of the work for which he is best known.

After the end of the Federal Art Project, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1942 mounted an exhibition called I Remember That, composed of works from the Index of American Design with several paintings by Harnly.

After seeing his works in this exhibit the film producer Albert Lewin invited Harnly to Hollywood and gave him various assignments, which included set designs for the film The Picture of Dorian Gray.

A biography, The Emphatically Queer Career of Artist Perkins Harnly and His Bohemian Friends by Sarah Burns was published by Feral House books in 2021.