Robert A. Anderson
"My goal has always been to capture both visual and spiritual likeness in an unobtrusive way. The faithful portrayal of a relaxed sitter is likely to evoke something appealing and familiar about that person, sometimes even to an unacquainted observer."
Robert A. Anderson graduated from Yale University in 1968 and then served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1969-1972, which included combat duty in Vietnam. He returned to study at the School of Fine Arts in Boston (1972-75) where he concentrated his talents on portraiture. In 1981, he won the First Prize in the National Portrait Seminar Competition in New York City.
In addition to painting privately commissioned portraits, for fifteen years Mr. Anderson was illustrator for the John H. Breck Company. His now famous pastel portraits of the “Breck Girl” appeared in Breck Shampoo print advertising and in commercials on American and Canadian network television. Between 1984 and 1989 he was under contract with the United States Postal Service to execute portraits for a number of U. S. postage stamps in the Great Americans Series. Issues include stamps honoring John Harvard, after whom Harvard University is named, Red Cloud, celebrated chief of the Oglala Sioux Nation, and the famous Hunkpapa Sioux Chief Sitting Bull.
Mr. Anderson has produced more than 250 commissioned portraits, including those of some of the most notable figures in government, academia, and business.
Selected Commissions & Collections
- Official portrait of President George W. Bush for the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
- President George W. Bush for the Yale Club of New York City
- Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan for the Federal Reserve Board headquarters in Washington, D.C.
- Official portraits of Department of Homeland Security secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, Washington, D.C.
- Official portraits of former governors William F. Weld and Edward J. King for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts
- Bunker Hill Pavilion, Charlestown, Massachusetts
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
- St. Anthony's Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois
- Casco Bankers Trust, Portland, Maine
- Massachusetts Medical Society, Waltham, Massachusetts
- Alfred I. duPont Institute, Wilmington, Delaware
- University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- The Loomis-Chaffee School, Windsor, Connecticut
- The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
- Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire
- Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
- Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey
- Marsh and McLennan Associates, New York, New York
- Wentworth Coolidge Mansion, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
- Denison University, Granville, Ohio
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
- McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts
- The Dial Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona
- Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
- The Lawrenceville School, Princeton, New Jersey
- Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
- The City Bar Association of New York, New York, New York
- Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, New York
- The Brown-Forman Company, Louisville, Kentucky
- Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts
- Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, New York
- Lafayette College, Easton, PA
- The Hartford Financial Services Group, Hartford, Connecticut
- Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT
- Connecticut State Capitol, Hartford, CT
- New York Presbyterian Hospital
Honors & Awards
- First Prize, National Portrait Seminar Competition, New York, New York, 1981
- Grand Prize for Best of Show, National Portrait Seminar National Competition, New York, New York, 1982
