Lennart Ranghusen was born in Stockholm in 1924 and spent much of his youth drawing at his parents’ house. The family was unaware of his talent until he produced a portrait of Selma Lagerlöf. The adults were stunned and urged him to send it to the author. Lennart didn’t want to. He thought it wasn’t good enough. It’s a feeling – of not having entirely succeeded – that seemed to dog him throughout his life...Read more. And also one of the reasons he is considered to have produced some of the absolute highlights of Swedish advertising art, and has been called “the country’s first art director”. To find a venue for his talents – and to finance his leisure interests – in 1951, he founded the magazine BAR. BAR quickly gained a reputation for its graphic design, covering subjects Lennart was interested in: wines, beverage lore and “lifemanship”. Lennart began his career at Saxon & Lindström before moving on to Gumaelius and Åhlén & Åkerlund. He is best known, however, for his many advertisements in the 1960s for the department store Sidenhuset, featuring simple, crisply executed ink drawings that were innovative and exerted great influence on the style of the era. When Sidenhuset closed (1969), Lennart decamped from the Swedish advertising world, turning up as a banker in Switzerland, where he remained for 18 years. He described himself as a mix of Baron Munchhausen and Kronblom, a Swedish cartoon character, and accomplished much during his professional life, from a brilliant advertising career to advising the Saudi king. He died in 2015 at the age of 91.

– J.N.