Philip Pearlstein, an artist whose nudes reclaimed the naked human body for painting, and who found a persuasive modern idiom for the portrait genre, died on Dec.17 in Manhattan. He was 98.

In the early 1960s, Mr. Pearlstein turned from landscapes executed in a brushy Abs tract Expressionist style and began painting nude models from life. His icily lit nudes represented a shocking departure in American painting then dominated by color fields.

His early paintings, from what he later called his symbolist period, were brightly colored abstractions. On vacation trips, he became fascinated by rock formations and began seeking out what he thought of as ready-made Abstract Expressionist compositions in nature. In the late 1950s, he began drawing the figure, and remained faithful to the nude throughout his career.