Lily Harmon

Lily Harmon, an artist who worked in portraiture, assemblage and book illustration, and whose third husband was the collector Joseph H. Hirshhorn, died in February 1998 at her home in Manhattan. She was 85. Ms. Harmon, whose original name was Lily Perlmutter, was born in 1912 in New Haven. She studied art at the Yale School of Fine Arts in New Haven, then at the Academie Colarossi in Paris and the Art Students' League in New York. She met the millionaire Joseph Hirshhorn, one of the most active art collectors of his generation, in the early 40's when he visited her studio to see her paintings. They were married in 1945 and adopted two infant daughters, in 1946 and 1950. The marriage ended in divorce in 1956. Ms. Harmon was married three other times. From 1934 to 1940, she was married to Sidney Harmon, a film and theatrical producer. In 1960 she was married briefly to Henry Rothman, a framemaker. In 1972 she married Milton Schachter, a real estate developer, who died in 1996. She is survived by her daughters, Amy Hirshhorn, of Watertown, Mass., and Jo Ann Hirshhorn, of New Orleans, and two grandchildren.