Arnold Friberg, painter of historical scenes, died at 96
Arnold Friberg, a widely popular artist of historical and religious scenes whose painstaking quest for stunning realism led him to Valley Forge, Pa., on a winter’s day to paint what became a famous portrait of George Washington praying in the snow, died Thursday in Salt Lake City. He was 96.
The cause was complications of hip surgery, his daughter-in-law Jayna Friberg-Cleamons said.
Mr. Friberg (pronounced FREE-berg) was probably best known for the “The Prayer at Valley Forge,” which depicts Washington kneeling beside his horse while his army winters at Valley Forge. To ensure utter accuracy, he went to the Smithsonian Institution to study Washington’s actual uniform.
And when it came time to paint, he stood on the banks of the Schuylkill River in the bitter cold near the spot where he imagined Washington kneeled. He removed his gloves.
“It was deserted, the wind moaning through the great trees, silent, lonely, cold,” he later recalled.
“It was a cold that chilled to the bone,” he continued, “a cold that froze my fingers until I could no longer sketch nor even snap my camera.”
The painting, which has been valued at more than $12 million, is currently on display at Mount Vernon, Washington’s home in Virginia.
Mr. Friberg’s other works include about 300 paintings of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that so impressed the Mounties they made him an honorary member. His skill in depicting people and horses prompted the British royal family to summon him to Buckingham Palace to paint separate pictures of Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II with the queen’s horse, Centennial.
His series of paintings of events in the Book of Mormon, the sacred text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has been reproduced millions of times. His other works have ranged from depictions of the great eras of college football to large pictures of Western saloons, commissioned for a Las Vegas casino. He collected and copied antique wallpaper for the saloon pictures, one of which shows men on horseback shooting pool.
A high point for Mr. Friberg was his being selected by the legendary director Cecil B. DeMille to create 15 historical paintings to serve as models for scenes, props and costumes for the movie spectacle “The Ten Commandments.” DeMille sent the pictures around the world as publicity for the film. In an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune in 2006, Mr. Friberg said he chose the colors of Moses’ robe: red with black and white stripes to contrast with the Egyptians’ light-colored garb.
Arnold Friberg was born on Dec. 21, 1913, in Winnetka, Ill., where his Swedish father and Norwegian mother had immigrated three years before he was born. When he was 3 the family moved to Arizona, where they converted to Mormonism. By age 13, he was earning a living as an apprentice to a sign painter.
After attending the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, he moved to New York, where he studied at the Grand Central School of Art, worked for advertising agencies and painted covers for The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines.
He was drafted into the Army during World War II and was asked to work as an artist with the rank of captain. Instead he chose to go into the infantry as an enlisted man. He served in Europe and in the Pacific.
Mr. Friberg’s first wife, the former Hedve Mae Baxter, died in 1986. He is survived by his wife, the former Heidi Miller Grosskopf; his sons, Frank Friberg and Peter and Izzie Dominy; his daughter, Pat Friberg; 10 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
Mr. Friberg never took offense at being called an illustrator, saying his audience was “the guy down the street.” His goal, he said, was to tell stories.
It worked for Joanna Brooks, a writer known for her commentary on Mormonism. On the Web site Religion Dispatches (religiondispatches.org), she wrote on Friday, “In my head, God is colored by Arnold Friberg.”
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