In the late 1950s Arnold Friberg adopted two of his nephews after their mother passed way.

The time Friberg spent with the children and away from his artwork was never considered a sacrifice. They needed love and guidance, especially at a time when they were emotionally younger than their years and in need of help with their education. It was due to the love shown them by Friberg and his wife that Pat and Frank few up to achieve successful careers of their own. Pat became a school teacher with a natural gift for keeping children interested in learning. Frank is proud of his career in law enforcement, a choice that may have been influenced a bit by all the Mountie paintings he saw Friberg producing in his art studio.

It wasn’t until 1963 that Arnold Friberg was actually able to go Canada for the first time. This was many years after his first Canadian Mountie art piece created in the 1930s when he was a young professional artist in Chicago. His trip to the north would have occurred sooner had there not been major changes in Fribergs’ personal life during the late 1950s.

While producing the artwork for The Ten Commandments, tragedy stuck Fribergs’ wife’s (Hedve) family. Her sister, Erma, died lieaving two small children. Arnold and Hedve Friberg adopted the children, to raise and love them as their own.

When Arnold Friberg began his Mountie art series, it was almost impossible to find accurate reference material in the United States on uniforms and other official gear. Yet, within the limits of his information, Friberg still tried to be as authentic as possible. He went to the picture department of the New York Public Library, a reference room used by artists and illustrators to locate pictures on a vast array of subjects. When he inquired about available pictures of the Canadian Mounted Police, he was presented with a big envelope containing nothing but his own work.

Arnold Friberg discovered that there were western areas that few artists had recorded to any great extent. Perhaps the largest such territory was in Canada, a fact he encountered when first attempting to research his pictures on the Mounties.

Friberg said there was no artist of great stature traveling with the voyageurs, the Mounties, and the Indians, recording the great history of the west territories as there was in the American west.

Arnold Friberg maintains a great respect for Native American culture. It gives him a deep satisfaction that Native American’s visiting his art studio have often pointed out that his paintings have “strong medicine.” Oh his wall, Friberg has carefully copied quotes from Adolf Hungry Wolf, a Native American writer whose expressions of oneness with nature are profoundly akin to the spirit, or “medicine,” Friberg tries to achieve on canvas.

Arnold Friberg first started painting western art for calendars. Although he utilized every fine art quality he knew, he never gave much consideration to the original paintings, considering them just leftovers from the printed reproductions. Friberg never thought of showing them off in art exhibitions, and they accumulated around his home and studio.

Arnold Friberg was a stickler for details. Before creating his art piece The Coach: Knute Rockney in the Locker Room at Notre Dame, Friberg asked such questions as: What did the uniforms look life? What players had which numbers on the backs of their uniforms? Where did Knute Rockney stand when addressing his team? All of this took effort and research on Friberg’s part. A number of then-current Notre Dame All-American stars assisted the artist by posing as the players in the picture.

When on location at Notre Dame stadium to create composition for the painting The Coach: Knute Rockne in the Locker Room at Notre Dame, Arnold Friberg acted not only played artist, but also detective.

Inside the locker room Friberg studied the benches, the overhead light protected by a wire cage, the blackboard in the corner, and other special features of the room. Notes were taken of the colors to ensure that he knew all the details. Then Friberg studied the brick, noticing areas were paint had chipped off, revealing other colors underneath. The original floorboard was red, but it had been painted over with green. By spotting the chipped paint, Friberg was able to determine the original color and to achieve historical accuracy in his work.

Cecil DeMille, director of The Ten Commandments movie, wanted Moses to be portrayed masculine. That’s a main reason why he supported Arnold Friberg as the artists to work on the movie. He believed Arnold Friberg’s art to be masculine claiming: “Everything this man does is strong.”

DeMille’s desire for powerful presences also explains why Prince-cum-Pharaoh Rameses (Yul Brynner) was a strongly drawn character. He needed to be a worthy adversary of God-the-Almighty (voiced by Charlton Heston, DeMille and indistinct others), Moses-the-Godsupported-leader (Charlton Heston), Nefretiri-the-wilful (Anne Baxter) and also be a
worthy successor of the commanding Pharaoh Sethi (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) after his
death and journey into the afterlife.

World War II would have been easy for Arnold Friberg had he accepted the original offer made by the military. When a top artist was recruited, there was the immediate offer of a captain’s commission and the chance to serve from a major city if the artist would create posters for the air corps. Friberg responded in a typical manner of the artists at the time. The prevailing opinion was that they should either refuse military service or go to war like any other soldier. The idea of staying snug in the states while creating propaganda posters that would encourage other men to join the military and risk their lives in combat was shameful. Friberg did not favor the war, but if he had to serve, then he would perform his duties like everyone else.