LDS Artist Arnold Freiberg

Wow, did you know this famous artist's paintings are on display at the Mesa Temple Visitor's Center???!!! It is so worth seeing. I saw it last Saturday and can whole heartedly recommend you going there and taking your precious children too. Enjoy!




About The Artist: Born December 21, 1913 in Winnetka, Illinois, Arnold Friberg is an American painter noted for his religious and patriotic works. Some of his best-known works include the 1975 painting The Prayer at Valley Forge depicting George Washington praying while the Continental Army winters at Valley Forge, and the pre-visualization paintings for the Cecil B. DeMille film The Ten Commandments for which he received an Academy Award nomination. In 1978 Friberg was commissioned to do a portrait of Prince Charles with his horse "Centennial", the great-grandson of Man-O-War. This was done at a studio in Buckingham Palace. In 1990, he and his wife were invited back to spend another six weeks residing in Buckingham Palace for his commissioned undertaking of an equestrian portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and Centennial. Being commissioned to paint these royal portraits would mean that Arnold Friberg's name would be included in a list with such great artists as; Rembrandt, Velazquez, Raphael, Rubens, Van Dyck and numerous other masters who had painted portraits of the Royal family. He was made a life member of the honorable Royal Society of Arts, London, which accounts for the initials R.S.A. after his name.

Friberg in his advanced age still works when he can from his studio in Salt Lake City. "Art to me is a service, to bring enrichment to people's lives. That's why I want my art to be perfectly understood. One of the things I work for is clarity. That doesn't mean hard-edged forms, but clarity of the picture: what time of day, what kind of lighting, where it is. It should all be clear. I hope no one ever has to explain my pictures."