Monday, July 5, 2010

Monday sketchbook: RIP, Mr. Friberg

This last week marked the passing of famed artist and illustrator Arnold Friberg, probably best known for his paintings based on the Book of Mormon. Mr. Friberg depicted the people in the Book of Mormon as very strong and muscular, particularly the prophets.

In some copies of the Book of Mormon, his paintings were interspersed with the text. They often became a milestone for measuring how far one had read: "I'm almost to the Abinadi picture" or "I just passed Samuel the Lamanite." Recent editions no longer include his artwork, but his work is well known amongst Sunday school students the world over.
  • My fellow Mormon cartoonist Arie Van De Graaff has posted his tribute to Arnold Friberg here.

2 comments:

  1. I like your tribute. As a kid who loved to study each one of his Book of Mormon paintings, I just wished Mr. Friberg would have drawn Samson from the Old Testament. Now those would have been big arms!

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