Obituaries

Henry George Fischer, 82. Metropolitan Museum of Art curaor of Egyptian art, died on Dec. 11 in Newtown, Pa. He was instrumental in bringing the Temple of Dendur to the Met. He joined the museum staff as an assistant curator in 1958, became associate curator in 1963, head of the department of Egyptology the following year, and was named curator emeritus of Egyptology upon his retirement in 1992. When the Roman-era temple was threatened by waters rising behind the Aswan Dam in 1965, the Egyptian government donated it to the U.S. as thanks for American help in rescuing other monuments, such as Abu Simbel. From 1964 to 1970, Fischer was a leader of the American Committee to Save Abu Simbel. He convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson that offers to site the Temple of Dendur, made of delicate sandstone, on the banks of the Potomac or the Charles River in Boston would lead to its ruin. As a result, the structure was sent to the Metropolitan, where it resides in the Sackler Wing. Fischer also wrote extensively on ancient Egyptian art, and studied how Egyptian calligraphy and visual art fit together, which resulted in The Orientation of Hieroglyphs (1977).

Leslie Lerner, 55, painter, died Sept. 10 of cancer in Sarasota, Fla. He created brushy, narrative paintings, often employing imaginary or symbolic elements, protagonists or settings. Since 1990, he had taught at the Ringling School of Art and Design and worked at CCAC in Oakland, Calif., prior to that. Over the years he showed with Rosenberg + Kaufman and Littlejohn Contemporary in New York. Littlejohn and the Katonah [N.Y.] Museum of Art are planning shows of his work in early 2007.

Donald McFadyen, 45, artist, died of lung cancer on Sept. 6 in Dundee, Scotland. Based in Chicago since 1982, where he studied and later taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he was known for his dark, photo-based realist paintings. In the 1990s, he showed with Zolla/Lieberman Gallery in Chicago and at Althea Viafora in New York.

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