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. He was in great demand in the Los Angeles galleries, but sold
primarily through Aaron Brothers.
But despite his national reputation as a portrait artist, he refused
those 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.
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