Leon Kelly was born in the French Pyrenees in 1901 but he was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1924, he enrolled in Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art (now,  the University of the Arts). He received a traveling scholarship after his first year there that allowed him to travel through Europe. He also had his first one man show that year at the  Gallery of Contemporary Art.  After completing the courses at Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art , he was accepted at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he became influenced by Cubism and Fauvism. Some of his work was truly Surrealistic, as was his entry in the Imagery of Chess show. Leon Kelly died in 1982.