US art collector gives Tate pounds 1m Lichtenstein

An American art collector has given the Tate Gallery in London a pounds 1m painting by Roy Lichtenstein, the quintessential American pop artist who died last September.

The work, called Interior with Waterlilies 1991, belongs to Lichtenstein's final thematic painting series of interiors, which he began in 1991. Derived from the style of advertisements used in the Yellow Pages directory, the images are presented in Lichtenstein's familiar style which employs striped diagonal lines, black outlines and flat areas of colour. The waterlilies of the title are part of his continuing homage to Claude Monet.

The painting will be the centrepiece of a memorial display at the Tate, which was an early supporter of Lichtenstein, from tomorrow until March next year.

The benefactor is Douglas Cramer, a collector and television producer. Mr Cramer said: "Interior with Waterlilies was the only one of Roy's works owned by the Cramer Foundation and Roy specifically told me it would give him and Dorothy [Lichtenstein's wife] great pleasure to have it find a home at the Tate Gallery."