George D. Lee, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, was a resident of the Louisville neighborhood of Crescent Hill and had a studio in the Kenyon Building in downtown Louisville. He took part in the Kentucky and Southern Indiana Exhibitions of Art in the 1920s and ’30s. The list of exhibitors refers to him as "Captain George D. Lee." He was a decorated veteran of the Spanish-American War and the Philippine Insurrection and apparently pursued painting on his retirement from the Army.

A 1939 Courier-Journal article on “Louisville Artists as Individualists” speaks of Lee as coming to painting after “years” as a commercial artist and notes that Lee had been a wood engraver as early as 1878. The influence of Paul Plaschke, a major player in the regional art scene, is readily apparent in his work.