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Lillian Genth was born in Philadelphia in 1876. She studied on scholarship at the Philadelphia school of design for women with Elliott Daingerfield. After winning the European Fellowship she traveled and studied in Europe with James McNeill Whistler in Paris and London. Genth also traveled and painting in Italy, North Africa, and Thailand. She exhibited extensively, abroad and in the states, winning many awards and public support for her work.
The influence of Genth’s friendship with Whistler is clearly expressed in her works. Like Whistler, Genth preferred academic subjects, women with subtle exotic accents painted in a traditional style. She did, however, use many techniques and innovations inspired by Impressionists and was well known for her characteristic intensity of color and powerful use of light effects.
Genth enjoyed the patronage of a steady clientele throughout the period of the early modern movement since there was a large audience that preferred poetic subjects painted in a soothing fashion. Critics also noted her for her paintings of nudes in Arcadian settings that placed her "among the foremost artists of the human form." These have found places in many distinguished collections, including the National Gallery in Washington and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. After completing about 150 nude studies though, Genth declared in 1928 that she would never paint another nude again.
Genth lived towards end of her life in New York City, spending her summers at "Hermitcliff" in Berkshires. She died March 29, 1953.