Milton Avery was born in 1885, in Altmar, New York. From 1901 to 1924 Avery worked in Hartford, Connecticut as an assembler, file clerk and construction worker. During this period he studied life-drawing at evening classes at the Connecticut League of Art Students, Hartford and later at the School of the Art Society of Hartford.

In 1925 he moved to New York City and in 1926 married the artist Sally Michel. Subsequently he devoted himself to painting full-time and continued to do so despite periods of ill health, until his death in 1965. Avery's first public exhibition was a group show at the Annex Gallery, Hartford in 1915. His first solo exhibition was held in New York at the Valentine Gallery in 1935. In 1944, Avery had his first solo museum exhibition at the Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington DC. His first retrospective was at the Durand-Ruel Galleries, New York in 1947. Major retrospective exhibitions include The Baltimore Museum of Art (1952) and The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in both 1960 and 1982.