Beautiful Leonard L Nelson oil canvas, 32 x 26 inches. Provenance: private owner.
Biography: 1912 - 1993. Leonard Nelson, leader of the Philadelphia School of Art, was born Leonard Louis Nelson in Camden, New Jersey on March 5, 1912 to Anna (nee Bryen) and Morris Nelson. Nelson's father owned several local businesses and provided a comfortable lifestyle for his family, but tragedy struck in 1928 when both Nelson's parents died in their early 40s (his mother from unexplained causes, his father from a heart attack). Nelson was then 16 years old. He and his two sisters lived on trust funds until the stock-market crash of 1929 left them completely destitute. Leonard Nelson's art was always ahead of its time. Several of his paintings and drawings from the late 1940s show an experimental style of colorfield painting. Colorfield painting was a term for organic, sensuous and joyous abstract painting in the 1960s. This is the direction that Nelson's later work of the 1970s, '80s and '90s would take. His early "colorfield" paintings in the 1960s were more representational of nature, using abstracted flowers and gardens. These works then evolved into a tight, highly textured reflection of nature and light in the 1970s. In these, luminescence and heavy impasto, carefully applied layer upon layer over months, or even years, resulted in some of Nelson's most celebrated works. Leonard Nelson died on November 23, 1993 but posthumously has become recognized for his originating the Philadelphia School of Art.

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Signed [Artist Name] : In cases in which the signature is legible in the lot, this work is described as-is with no attributions given.

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In the manner of [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but was designed deliberately to emulate the style of the artist.

After [Artist Name] : The work was executed by an unknown hand, but is a deliberate copy of a known work by the artist.

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Follower of [Artist Name]: A work by a pupil or a follower of the artist (not necessarily a pupil).

American, 19th century: This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).

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