Richard Lindner (American/German, 1901–1978) was a German-born Jewish painter who grew up in Nuremberg. He studied music in his youth and was poised to become a concert pianist; however, Lindner’s interest in art led him to the Kunstakademie in Munich, where he studied from 1925 until 1927. In 1929, he became the art director at Knorr & Hirth, a large publishing house, where he worked until 1933 when he fled to Paris to avoid arrest by the Nazis. In France, Lindner continued to work in graphic design until 1939. He moved to New York in 1941 and worked as an illustrator for numerous publications, including Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Fortune. By 1952, Lindner had relinquished commercial assignments in order to devote his time and attention entirely to art. A 1950 portrait of Marcel Proust demonstrates the influence of Cubism on Lindner’s work. During the 1950s, he taught on a part-time basis at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. One of Lindner’s significant early works is The Meeting (1953), a group portrait of himself as a child with family members, fellow artist Saul Steinberg, a large cat, and other imagined figures. With bold outlines and broad, flat stretches of vibrant color, Lindner’s figures are reminiscent of those by Fernand Léger. Lindner’s works from this period are often characterized by a vague sense of nostalgia and sexual undertones. His later works are frequently described as more distinctly American and inspired by Lindner’s life in New York. In addition to his first solo exhibition in 1954 at the Betty Parsons Gallery, Lindner’s works have been displayed at the Dallas Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, among others.