The Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation
 
Robert Bliss (1925 - 1981) was a New Englander (Newton, Mass.) who undertook a certain amount of art study at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and at Bowdoin College. He also became a protégé of Andrew Wyeth who designated Bliss as one of the most promising artist of the year in a Time article on up and coming artists. He was, however, largely self-taught and over time his work appeared in scores of commercial gallery shows and made its way into the collections of nine major American art institutions. Malcolm Forbes is rumored to have purchased several for his collection.

In his early 20's Bliss did a stint in the U.S. Army where he was a radar technician. After military service he obtained a position as Artist-In-Residence and art teacher at the Deerfield Academy in Connecticut in 1951. Deerfield was then one of the most elite private boys' schools in the country. In one of his first pieces of press coverage a journalist described him as "tall, (6'2"), husky, and very good looking."

He taught at Deerfield for nearly 13 years before "retiring" in 1963. It has been suggested that he was "invited" to resign under circumstances which remain obscure although no one at Deerfield will confirm this.

Although his fame as an artist in the early years of his career was widespread (he was very much in the marketplace - attracting large numbers of gay men along with crowds of straight admirers) and although he apparently lived a rather constrained sexual life, the intensity of his focus on adolescent boys - however brilliantly accomplished - inevitably attracted unwelcome (and artistically irrelevant) attention. It is noteworthy that while at Deerfield he never painted a boy without gaining the express consent of the boy's parents.

While his transitory fame has faded from memory in the mainstream art world - his works are rarely displayed in the various institutions that own them - he remains a hero of art and beauty to gay men who knew his work when they were younger and are thrilled when they come across it again.

Bliss, a student of Carolyn Wyeth, and after 20 years of alcoholism, discovered LSD. After that he completely stopped drinking.His work then completely shifted to colorful landscapes as well as psychedelic visionary paintings.

Bliss died in Hull, Massachusetts in 1981 at the age of 55 as a result of chronic alcoholism.

Leslie-Lohman also has in its collection photos and slides of many of Bliss' models, which Bliss took, and some documents and letters from the estate of Robert Bliss, all generously donated by Larry Wald.