Lie was born in Moss, in Østfold county, Norway. His father Sverre Lie (1841–1892) was a Norwegian civil engineer and his mother Helen Augusta Steele (1853–1906) was an American from Hartford, Connecticut. He was named for his father's cousin (and brother-in-law), the famous Norwegian author Jonas Lie, who had married his father's sister Thomasine.
Following his father's death in 1892, 12-year-old Lie was sent to live with Thomasine and Jonas Lie in Paris. His aunt and uncle's home was a meeting place for famous artists such as Henrik Ibsen, Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Edvard Grieg, and Georg Brandes. He had already received drawing instruction from Christian Skredsvig in Norway, and Lie attended a small private art school in Paris. The following year he traveled to the United States, where he joined his mother and sisters in New York City.
From 1897–1906, he trained at the Art Students League of New York.[6][7]
Lie traveled to Panama in 1913, to paint scenes of the construction of the Panama Canal. His thirty resulting canvases brought him wide acclaim. In 1929, twelve of these were donated to United States Military Academy in memory General George W. Goethals, the West Point graduate who had been the canal's chief engineer.[7]
Lie was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1912, and a full member in 1925.[11] He served as NAD's president from 1934 to 1939.
He was invited to exhibit four paintings in New York City's 1913 Armory Show: The Black Teapot, At the Aquarium, A Hill Top, The Quarry.[11]
Snow (c.1935), Ex collection: Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri.[19] Awarded PAFA's 1935 Jessie Sesnan Medal.[12] Auctioned at Christie's New York, 27 September 2011, Lot 43.[20]
View of the Seine (1909), Cummer Museum of Art
The Black Teapot (1911), Everson Museum of Art
Morning On The River (ca. 1911-1912), Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester
Path of Gold (1914), High Museum of Art, Atlanta
The Old Ships Draw to Home Again (ca. 1920), Brooklyn Museum
When the Boats Come In (ca. 1921), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Gates of Pedro Miguel (1913), United States Military Academy, West Point, New York.[21] Awarded a silver medal at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition.
Crane at Miraflores (1913), United States Military Academy, West Point, New York
Heavenly Hoist (1913), United States Military Academy, West Point, New York[22]
Biography of Jonas Lie by Dina Tolfsby, Curator of the Norwegian-American Collection, National Library of Norway. Published by the Norwegian chapter of the Norwegian-American Historical Association, Vol. XI, 285-311
Haugan, Reidar Rye (1933) Prominent Artists and Exhibits of Their Work in Chicago (Chicago Norske Klub. Nordmanns-Forbundet, 24: 371—374, Volume 7)
Lovoll, Odd S. (1988) A Century of Urban Life: the Norwegians in Chicago before 1930 (Northfield, MN: Norwegian-American Historical Association)
^ abcdefgPeter Hastings Falk, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the National Academy of Design, 1901-1950 (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1990), pp. 325-326.
^ abPeter Hastings Falk, ed., The Annual Exhibition Record of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Volume 3, 1914-1968 (Madison, CT: Sound View Press, 1989), p. 295.
