Robert Clyde Anderson was born in Louisiana, USA, in the 1950's. He grew up on a farm. He started drawing at the early age of two. He studied fine art and design at the Louisiana State University. After graduating in 1977 with a BFA, Anderson studied figure drawing and painting, then worked in advertising in New Orleans until 1989.
He moved to New York and worked as a freelance illustrator. He counts Details, Fortune, House and Garden, Mademoiselle, New York Magazine, Travel and Leisure, Vogue and Wallpaper among his editorial clients.
His corporate clients include AT&T, Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Daytons, ESPN, Estee Lauder, Gap, IBM, J.Crew, Kenneth Cole, Le Printemps, Lincoln Center, Marshall Field, Microsoft, Moet & Chandon, Neiman Marcus and Turner Broadcasting.
Anderson has illustrated and lettered book jackets for Chronicle Books, Doubleday, Farrar, Straus & Giroux and St. Martin's Press, among others. Four of the books illustrated by him are available at Amazon, shown at the foot of the page.
Robert Anderson's crisp, calligraphic illustrations are executed in pencil, transferred to acetate and then painted from the back, like animation cells. His work is highly figurative and shows attractive intelligent people.