Myers grew up in poverty. In adolescence he lived in Trenton, Philadelphia and Baltimore. He worked odd jobs to support himself and his family. In 1886 he moved to New York and studied first at Cooper Union and then at the Art Students League under Georege De Forest Brush.
Early on Myers rejected both the French and Munich academic styles, and searched for a style and technique that grew out of the subject itself. A brief trip to Paris in 1896 confirmed his decision to reject European styles and training. Another trip to Europe in 1914, made at the encouragement of Roger Fry who had bought some of Myers' drawings, reaffirmed Myers' decision to reject European trends.
Myers, Elmer MacRae and Henry Fitch Taylor initiated the Pastellist Society, a subgroup of the Henri circle, for the exhibition on intimate drawings and pastels. One of their exhibitions was held in 1911 at the Madison Gallery, where Henry Fitch Taylor was director. Under the leadership of Kuhn this group met and founded what was to become the Association of American Artists and Sculptors which staged the Armory Show. Myers originally conceived of the Armory show as showing exclusively American works, but did not object when it was enlarged by Arthur B. Davies, the Association's President, to include foreign works.
Myers exhibited with Macbeth Gallery, Milch Gallery, the Kraushaar Gallery and Rehn. He maintained a summer home in Carmel, NY on Lake Gilead, but retained a studio in New York continuously, where he concentrated on painting the life of the city, particularly lower class street life.
NAD awards
Myers, Jerome Clarke 1919
Myers, Jerome Altman [Winter] 1930
Myers, Jerome Carnegie 1936
Myers, Jerome Altman 1937
Myers, Jerome Isidor Mdl 1938
