Background
She was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870.
She was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870.
Her birth name is Rebecca Levine. Harris lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago for 45 years. She also lived in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Washington, District of Columbia, and Colorado.
She had two daughters: Marilee Shapiro and Eleanor Harris, both artists.
She was self-taught. Her work was exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Walker Art Center and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The Hyde Park Art Center described her style as using "bold colors reflecting a vision of a highly poetic everyday work."
Harris painted until her death in 1962 in Jacksonville, Florida.
Houses in Winter (Minneapolis), gouache on paper, 1953. Smithsonian American Art Museum
Solo retrospective, 1995, Hyde Park Art Center
Group show, 2001, Vassar College
"Outside In: Self-Taught Artists and Chicago", 2002, Smart Museum of Artist