Portrait in patriotism — Friberg painting of Washington honored at Valley Forge exhibit

That combination of deep meaning and accessibility has been a trademark of Friberg art from the beginning, staying throughout his long and illustrious career.

The son of immigrant parents, Friberg was born in Illinois and grew up in Phoenix. By age 7, he was drawing his own cartoons, and he enrolled in an art correspondence course at age 10. He shared some of his early drawings with the newspaper staff of the Arizona Republic and learned from their critiques. During high school he earned money by making signs for local businesses.

He later studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the Grand Central School of Art in New York. He also served with the 86th Infantry Division in World War II.

After the war, he began his career by painting scenes of the American West for a calendar company. By 1950, he had married, and he and his wife moved to Utah, where he taught commercial art at the University of Utah.

Friberg is well-known for his series of paintings done in connection with Cecil B. DeMille's movie "The Ten Commandments."

"That was a wonderful experience," Friberg said. "DeMille was the real thing. The world will never see his like again."

Friberg is also revered locally for a series of paintings he did depicting scenes from the Book of Mormon.

"Arnold Friberg, arguably more than any other artist, established for Latter-day Saints what Book of Mormon people, landscapes and events might have been like," noted Vern G. Swanson, curator at the Springville Museum of Art, in an article in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies.

Those paintings were not commissioned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints but by Adele Cannon Howells, general president of the church's Primary, who paid for them out of her own funds. "It was her gift to the church," Friberg said. "It was her dying wish to have them done. She should get the credit."

There have been other important paintings, as well. He's done more than 200 pieces for the Canadian Mounted Police and, in fact, he is the only American to be given honorary membership in that organization.

Because of his work with the Mounties, in 1978 Friberg was commissioned to do an almost life-size painting of Prince Charles and his horse, Centennial, the great-grandson of Man o' War. In 1990, he was invited back to Buckingham Palace to do a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and Centennial.

Those, too, were interesting experiences, he said. "I got to know Charles quite well. He had a great sense of humor and treated us well." But, he added, "People see the glamour in those things, but it is extremely strenuous, exhausting work."

Looking back on his career, "it is strange where my work has carried me," he said. "A lot of it was not my doing; it just came to me."