Henry Neil Rasmusen was born in Salt Lake City, Utah on April 20, 1909. A modernist painter, his work was exhibited locally and nationally. He was also the author of several books on painting technique, design and printmaking.

Rasmusen studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1930, and at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He taught Utah's Art Barn and at the Utah Art Center from 1935 until 1941. Although he worked with Utah painter and muralist Lynn Fausett on the Barrier Canyon project, he was primarily a modernist painter at this point.

In 1954 Rasmusen moved to Mill Valley, California where he continued to write and create his artwork as well as participate in the Marin Society of Artists, the Sausalito Art Festival and the California State Fair. He was best known for his “sensitive, mystic monotypes.” He authored the book ‘Printmaking with Monotype’ in 1961, describing many methods for creating a monotype.

Examples of his paintings include Allegory of War (1943), Fish and Sails (1947), and Still Life with Fish, Fork and Spoon (1947). Rasmussen's worked was exhibited at the Utah State Fair in 1937, at the World's Fair in New York in 1939, and at the Denver Art Museum in 1940.  Brigham Young University owns Rasmussen's studio collection. His work in also included in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and IBM.

Henry Neil Rasmusen died in Mill Valley, California in April, 1970.