Richards was the son of Levi W. and
Lula Greene Richards. His father was the son of
Levi Richards who was the brother of
Joseph Smith's physician (
Willard Richards) in
Nauvoo, Illinois. He was actually named Levi after his father but went by Lee. Levi W. Richards and his mother Sarah Griffith Richards had been painters. Lee Richards was raised as a member of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and in 1895 he served as an
LDS missionary in England. Richards went to Paris in 1901 where he studied at the
Académie Julian and the
École des Beaux-Arts. In 1904 he returned to Utah where he started an art studio. In 1908 Richards married Mary Jane Eldredge, whose father was a wealthy banker. They spent over a year on their honeymoon in Paris. Richards was known best for his portraiture, but he also painted landscapes. Some of his murals are featured inside the Utah Capitol Building. He worked alongside Alma B. Wright in 1916 to paint the mural "Utah Lake" on a wall of the capitol. He also finished a mural "Great Men of Knowledge" in 1940 in the University of Utah Park Building which was modified in 2000 due to the objections of Muslim student of it depicting Muhammad. Richards planned and sketched the paintings, and then worked with artists Gordon Cope and Henry Rasmussen to complete the project. and one for the
Mesa Arizona Temple. The Utah Museum of Fine Arts has a large collection of his portraits and murals. In 1921 Richards was the only American to serve as a judge at the
Salon d'Automne. From 1938 to 1947 Richards was an art professor at the
University of Utah. ==Locations of works==