Lennart Anderson (1928-2015) has been called the “elder statesman of American figurative painting.” Drawing from both the annals of art history and a tireless drive to observe, Anderson’s pictures have presented a vision of the everyday world through color, structure, and the connection of forms for the duration of his long and prolific career. In this lecture, presented in conjunction with the first retrospective of Anderson’s art since his death in 2015, Lyme Academy of Fine Arts Principal Art Historian Emily Weeks considers the inspiration and execution of Anderson’s works, and the legacy that his practice of “seeing beautifully” leaves behind.

Dr. Weeks received her Ph.D. from the Department of the History of Art at Yale University in 2004, with specialties in Orientalism and in nineteenth-century European and British art. Having held positions both as a university lecturer and a museum curator and received numerous prestigious awards, she now works as an independent art historian and consultant for museums, academic institutions, auction houses, and private collectors in America, Britain, Europe, and the Middle East. Emily’s first book, Cultures Crossed: John Frederick Lewis (1804-1876) and the Art of Orientalism, was published by Yale University Press; books on Orientalist picture frames, the influence of artist’s tools and materials on their craft, and a revised print and digital catalogue raisonné for the French academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme, of whom she is the acknowledged expert, are currently in progress.

Recorded on 2/15/22