At the end of World War I many Swedish artists took the chance to travel to Europe and develop their skills through the study of art in museums and through meeting other fellow artists. In 1921 Leander Engstrom and his friends Einar Jolin and Gregor Paulsson decided to take a trip to Italy. Once there, Leander was completely charmed by the beauty of the landscape and decided to settle in Tuscany.


The Italian Renaissance painting influenced him strongly and came to inspire him to transform both design and color treatment for a "more modern" version of the Renaissance painting.

The art historian Ake Fant writes in his book about the artist "On New Year 1921 Leander Engstrom moved his family to Florence and settled down in Settignano outside the city. At this time a new phase in his painting began. The subjects were the Italian landscape and portraits seen in a whole new way. Among the early Renaissance painters, he found an expression that was consistent with his own artistic endeavors."


In Italy, the Engström family socialized with the artist Arvid Fougstedt and his family, which also resulted in an artistic influence between the two artists. Fougstedt who worked with a detailed painting which later came to be known as the "new objectivity" lead Leander Engstrom towards a more detailed painting than he had previously done.

Combined with studies of the early Italian painters Giotto, Lorenzetti, and Gaddi just expressing something that he himself sought changed his painting radically over the years. He also admired the medieval painting with strictly geometrically constructed elements of architectural features. With the help of these influences, he created a stylized idiom which made him stand out among his contemporary Swedish artists.


A few others sought the same line, among others, Gösta Adrian-Nilsson who published his book "The divine geometry" in 1922.