Dan Robbins, artist behind paintings by numbers, died at age 93

TOLEDO, Ohio – Dan Robbins, an artist who created the first painted images by numbers and helped transform the kits into an American sensation in the 1950s, died. He was 93 years old.

Robbins, whose works were rejected by some critics but later celebrated by the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History, died Monday in Sylvania, Ohio, said his son, Larry Robbins .

He was healthy until a series of falls in recent months, said his son.

Robbins was working as a packaging designer for the Palmer Paint Company in Detroit when he had the idea of ​​painting by numbers in the late 1940s. He said his inspiration came from Leonardo da Vinci. Vinci.

"I remembered hearing that Leonardo had used numbered background patterns for his students and apprentices, and I decided to try something like that," he said. Robbins in 2004.

He showed his first attempt – an abstract still life – to his boss, Max Klein, who immediately told Robbins that he hated her.

But Klein understood the potential of the overall concept and asked Robbins to come up with something that people would like to paint. The first versions were landscapes, then it was extended to horses, puppies and kittens.

"I did the first 30 or 35 topics myself, then I started to entrust them to other artists," said Robbins, who is primarily attached to the landscapes .

Although the Craft Master number paint kits were not originally adopted, sales quickly took off and reached 20 million in 1955. In a few years, the market was flooded, sales fell and Klein sold the company.