I’ve had the privilege of knowing Lennart Anderson for nearly 20 years now. Anderson is often described as a painter’s painter. He’s a realist painter working in classical motifs and engaged in a dialogue that recalls many of the masters: Degas, Corot, and Ingres. I’ve helped coordinate exhibitions for Lennart on a number of occasions for museum and gallery shows. Primarily I’ve known him through a professional capacity but I think we’d both say that we were friends.
Lennart’s recent exhibition at Leigh Morse Fine Arts contained rarities from across his career. Now with greatly impaired vision, he’s had to recreate himself as a painter over the past 10 years. The show at LMFA is now over, but certainly you could stop by in the coming weeks and likely find the works still on the walls. His fans are legion.
When I worked on 79th street, Lennart used to stop into the gallery (fresh cut from his subway barber on 86th street) and drag me over to the Met so that I could read Chardin wall labels to him. Still a treasured time.
Robert Callison, oil on panel, 1955
Dorothy Miller, oil on panel, 1957
Signor Panciara, oil on panel, 1961
Mimi, oil on panel, 1963
Rita Natarova, oil on panel, 2012
Three Figures on a Bluff with a Rabbit, oil on panel, c.2012-13?
Lennart rode an early wave of success with the New Realism that was supported in the 70s and early 80s. His classical motifs and tone into tone painting have also garnered him much attention of today’s crop of plein air painters, the Jerusalem Studio School etc. Perceptual Painters hosts a recent slide show by Lennart at: http://paintingperceptions.com/masters-of-perceptual-painting/lennart-anderson-slide-talk-video
and Lennart’s own site: http://www.lennartanderson.com/index.html
- Ink at the Meer, Sept. 14, 2020 - September 21, 2020
- Merry Cary, 2019 - December 8, 2019
- Copse, Late Summer - October 1, 2014