ARTIST: Leo Jansen (California, New York, Netherlands, 1930 - 1980)
NAME: Nude Reclining
YEAR: 1965
MEDIUM: oil on canvas
CONDITION: Few very minor paint losses. No visible inpaint under UV light.
SIGHT SIZE: 20 x 30 inches / 50 x 76 cm
FRAME SIZE: 31 x 41 inches / 78 x 104 cm
SIGNATURE: lower right
CATEGORY: antique vintage painting
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SKU#: 117370
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BIOGRAPHY:
Leo Jansen (1930-1980), born in Holland, moved to Indonesia when he was ten. There in the Tropics he began his craft by sketching bronze-skinned Malaysian girls for leisure. He returned to the Netherlands to study at the Academy of Art, to refine his growing mastery of the female figure. Like most Continental artists, he gravitated first to Paris, and quickly established himself as a portraitist of considerable talent. In 1962, he arrived in New York. Because of the softness and light with which he infused his portraits, he was chosen by several companies to do commemorative plates. Jansen is, perhaps, best known throughout the United States and Europe for his Mother's Day plates and puppies plate series. Many of the rich and famous such as Raquel Welch, William Holden, Donald Sutherland, Stephanie Powers, and the "L.A. Times" Hearst family sought out Jansen for his portraiture skills. Jansen's sitting fee in the 1960's was $20,000. In addition, he also gained fame for his portraiture of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. His Beatles portraits are among the more collectible memorabilia by fans. But despite his national reputation as a portrait artist, he refused commercial demands and resumed his childhood love affair of painting nudes. He then moved to Southern California. For eighteen years, he was commissioned by Playboy Magazine to paint the "Playmate of the Month." In his first six years, he was the artist chosen to paint 58 out of 72 portraits. His work hangs in Hugh Hefner's Playboy corporate headquarters and in the mansion. Ranked among the nation's best interpretive artist of nudes, Jansen's canvases hang in collections of a wide range of notables from Jean Claude Pascal to the late Judy Garland. His untimely death from an apparent heart attack (on December 20, 1980) at 50 years of age brought an end to a brilliant talent.