Arnold Blanche (1896 – 1968)

Arnold A. Blanche was born in Mantorville, Minnesota in 1896, near the city of Rochester. He studied at the Minneapolis School of Art and the Art Students League in New York. Similar to his peers in New York, Blanche believe that artists should paint from personal experiences and the environment. He served as a visiting teacher at the Colorado Fine Arts Center school. He lectured and was a visiting critic, as well as a spokesman for the art colony located in Woodstock, New York. He was a muralist for the Federal Art Project carried out in the 1930s. Among membership in associations and societies, Blanche was the president of the Painters, Sculptors, Gravers Society of America.

Arnold Blanche focused much of his creativity on painting scenes of social-realist American life. These scenes were laden with both mystical overtones and a style that was child-like in nature. Blanche abstained from the avant-garde popular at the time. Instead, he preferred imbuing his works with subjects which were happy and romantic.