Loosely painted multi-figured painting of three nude women gathered under a tree with a lake and mountains beyond, one figure sitting with knees up on left, one figure standing, leaning back on hands on right, with center figure leaning back and looking at viewer, overall muted tones with yellow and pinks and greens — Three Nymphs on a Bluff | 2015

three quarter portrait painting of young woman looking to the left in a muted, lavender shirt with dark hair, rendered in soft, diffused brushwork — Rita Natarova | 2013

Loosely painted multi-figured baccanal with two figures dancing together on the left, two figures standing under a tree to the right, and man holding a baby in the air off in the distance, muted greens and neutral fleshtones — Idyll 4 | 2012

Multi figured painting with a man and woman dancing, a woman leaning against a tree in a long white skirt in conversation with a man wit his hands behind his head, children playing and a woman lying on a picnic blanket with a child sitting next to her dressed in a white sleeveless shirt and a man off in the distance holding a baby up in the air with one hand. — Idyl III | 1979-2012

Portrait painting of a young man with blond hair, mouth slightly open and lost in thought, with off white background in muted tones showing brushwork and unfinished surface. — Portrait of Matthew Devlin | 2001

Still life painting of a wooden mannequin laying on its back with head on the left, feet on the right with feet raised in the air as if the figure is in frozen free fall, muted off white table surface that the mannequin is sitting on and muted warm orange background — Hammock | 1999

Still life painting of a wooden mannequin reclining and looking at a fragment of a plaster cast of a woman looking off in the distance, leaning up against an open box, muted colors, and a white background — Admiration | 1997

still life with shiny aluminum popcorn tray, glass salt shaker, peach and buns — Still Life with Corn Popper, Salt Shaker, and Buns | 1992

Still life painting with an aluminum tea kettle, peaches, salt shaker, and biscuit on a plate, presented on a wooden table with green legs and a green paneled backdrop — Still Life with Kettle | 1977

painting of woman standing, descending from a bed, nude with an open robe looking at the viewer — Standing Nude | 1962-5

painting of an urban street scene with multiple figures interacting in front of a building entrance with steps and windows. A man is looking at the viewers and running to the left, multiple figures, women and children are also running, furniture is upturned and a woman in a white tank top is kneeling to help someone who has fallen. — Street Scene | c. 1960's

Landscape painting of rolling hills, trees, brown fields off in the distance in muted tones of greens, yellows that fade to a blue gray dusty skyline. — Landscape | c. 1960

Still life painting in muted tones with squash, dark shot glass, and peach on white cloth. — Still Life with Shot Glass | 1952

Lennart Anderson, "Untitled portrait" (c. 1960s), oil on panel, 16 in. x 11 in. Courtesy Estate of Lennart Anderson.

Still life of green grapes, an apple, yellow cheese, lemons and a plastic cup in an off white muted background.

Lennart Anderson

1928 - 2015

“Because of my vision, I’m using my life now when I paint. I mean by that all the painting that I’ve ever done.”
Lennart Anderson in a 2013 interview with The Vision & Art Project

Biography

Born in Detroit, Michigan, Lennart Anderson knew from a young age that he wanted to be an artist. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and then at the Cranbrook Academy of Art.

He moved to New York in the mid-1950s, studied briefly at the Art Students League under Edwin Dickinson, and lived on Tenth Street, then a hub of abstract expressionism. In a 2013 interview with The Vision & Art Project, Anderson talked about how, from early in his career, he “hunkered down” and pursued what interested him. He painted street scenes and bacchanals from a combination of perception and imagination. He also painted still lifes, portraits, and figures from observation. By his own admission, the work of historical painters influenced Anderson—among others, Edgar Degas, Diego Velázquez, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, and Jean-Baptiste-Camille-Corot.

Although Anderson never worked exclusively from observation, he became known as a leading proponent of perceptual painting. He was the recipient of many important awards, including a Rome Prize (1958) and a Guggenheim (1983). His work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), and Whitney Museum of American Art, among others. He taught at Columbia, Princeton, and Yale, and served as a distinguished professor emeritus at Brooklyn College.

Anderson’s post-macular artwork

Anderson’s right eye was affected by macular degeneration in 2001. For the next six years, he relied on his left eye, with little change to his paintings or painting practice. When his left eye succumbed in 2007, however, his work changed.

A source for several late paintings, many of them based on mythological motifs, were figure drawings he had completed years before while he was teaching at Brooklyn College. Among other strategies, he used a phone to assess his work, taking photos of work-in-progress and examining them very closely in his peripheral vision.