Lalit Mohan Sen was born in 1898 in Shantipur, Nadia, to his parents, Jadumani Sen and Kunjabehari Sen. Growing up in a family associated with the famous traditional textile industries of Shantipur he enrolled in the Shantipur Municipal High School, but, due to the sudden outbreak of malaria, moved to Lucknow in 1909. Sen was among the first batch of students at the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Lucknow, established in 1912 under its first principal Nathaniel Herd. After graduating, he joined its Drawing for Reproduction Class as a teacher at age twenty. In 1924, on a Government fellowship, Lalit Mohan Sen went to London to study at the Royal College of Art under its Principal, renowned artist Sir William Rothenstein. He earned a Diploma in painting and a certificate in wood engraving from RCA. A member of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain, Lalit Mohan Sen, took training in various graphic art mediums under the guidance of the celebrated etcher Malcolm Osborne. After returning to India from England, he rejoined the Government School of Arts and Crafts, Lucknow, as Superintendent of Drawing Teacher's Training and continued to teach there. He became the School's Principal in 1945.
Success came to Lalit Mohan Sen early on. The renowned art historian Laurence Biniyon commissioned him to copy the Bagh Cave paintings. He was one of the four artists the Government of India hired to decorate the newly built India House in London. His paintings, prints, posters and photographs were widely exhibited and praised in India and abroad. Queen Mary appreciated his tempera painting 'Potter Girl' in the Royal College of Art exhibition in 1930 and bought it for the royal collection. In the mid-1920s, he was the only Indian artist whose woodcuts Victoria & Albert Museum had displayed as permanent exhibits in the Museum's print room. Sen's photographs were shown in the Royal Photographic Society's annual exhibition and published in the Society's journal. Besides these, he was a reputed book illustrator known for his commercial art. He won the Federation of British Industries Prize (London) for the best poster design.
Lalit Mohan Sen passed away in Lucknow as a versatile artist and teacher in 1954.