Young John the Baptist by Arnold Friberg

Arnold Friberg (American, 1913–2010)
Young John the Baptist
Graphite on paper
14 × 12 in.

This preparatory drawing depicts a youthful John the Baptist striding through a spare desert landscape, accompanied by a donkey laden with brushwood. Friberg constructs the scene through layered, searching graphite lines that allow forms to emerge gradually from the page. The upright staff and forward-moving posture lend the figure a sense of purpose and quiet resolve, while the loosely indicated terrain and vegetation suggest an environment defined more by experience than by description. The sketch balances narrative clarity with openness, capturing a formative moment of journey and calling rather than a fixed biblical episode.

Arnold Friberg was an American painter best known for his dramatic religious and historical imagery, particularly works created for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Educated at the Art Students League of New York, he combined academic draftsmanship with a strong sense of narrative and heroic characterization. Friberg’s drawings reveal the conceptual foundations of his finished paintings, demonstrating his ability to convey spiritual identity and destiny through gesture, posture, and economy of line.