Harry G. Berman was born in Philadelphia in 1900. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and also under the private tutelage of fellow Pennsylvania Impressionist painter, Fred Wagner.

Berman served with the United States Army in Europe during the First World War and after his discharge "had been regarded as one of the foremost of Philadelphia's younger painters." He exhibited frequently at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the National Academy of Design in New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts throughout the 1920's.

He maintained a studio at Washington Square in Philadelphia, specializing primarily in landscapes. His paintings are reminiscent of works by his contemporaries, such as Fred Wagner, and early works by Antonio Martino and Edward Redfield. Berman painted in New Hope with Wagner in the 1920's. His style employed an extremely thick impasto and a cold and fresh palette.

Berman died from pulmonary tuberculosis in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, at the age of thirty-two. This ailment was rumored to be caused from an incident during his tour of duty while overseas.

His work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Pennsylvania State University Art Museum and numerous private and institutional collections.