Harry Engel was a professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Indiana University from 1928 to 1968 as well as a nationally recognized artist. He specialized in various forms of painting, including watercolor, oil, acrylic, and encaustic.

Engel was born in 1901 in Romania and was brought to the United States by his parents within a year of his birth. The family lived in New York, Illinois, Michigan and Indiana at various times. Engel studied for two years at the Académie Ranson in Paris and later enrolled at the University of Notre Dame, graduating with a degree in art education in 1928. Immediately after graduation he accepted a position with the Art Department at Indiana University where he taught watercolor and art history. He later completed additional studies at the Sorbonne and Columbia University and became a full professor in 1956. He married Leila Shelly (b. 1902) of Oolitic, Indiana in 1931. The marriage ended in divorce in 1947.

Beginning in the 1940s, Engel spent his summers in New England, first in Ogunquit, Maine and later in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In each place he became part of the artist colony. In Provincetown he founded and operated an art school. He met Robert Laurent, the sculptor, in Ogunquit and was responsible for persuading him to join the Indiana University faculty. Engel established relationships with many writers and artists and corresponded with several of them and their spouses.

Engel exhibited his art throughout the United States and at a few shows abroad. He won several prizes. His paintings deal with universal and mythological themes and also portray cities, people, and scenes from Indiana. The Indiana University Art Museum owns many of his paintings.