A native of Kansas, Henry Varnum Poor earned his BA from Stanford University in 1906. He later studied art under Walter Sickert at the Slade School in London and at the Academie Julian in Paris under Jean Paul Laurens (1910-11.)

Poor taught at a number of institutions including Stanford, between 1911 and 1916 and the San Francisco Art Association during 1916-18 and at the Broadmoor Academy (Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center) in the summers of 1937 and 1938, serving as acting director the second year.