Name Belle Baranceanu | ||
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Education Minneapolis College of Art and Design | ||
Belle Goldschlager Baranceanu (July 17, 1902 – January 17, 1988) was an American painter, teacher, muralist, lithographer, engraver and illustrator.
She was born Belle Goldschlager in Chicago, Illinois (Baranceanu was her mother's maiden name). Her parents, both Romanian Jewish immigrants, separated during Belle's early childhood, and she grew up on her maternal grandparents' farm in North Dakota.
Biography
She studied at the Minneapolis School of Fine Arts under Anthony Angarola, to whom she was engaged until his death in 1929. Active in Chicago during the 1920s as a teacher and exhibitor, she worked in Los Angeles, California in 1927–1928. She moved to San Diego in 1933.
During the Great Depression Baranceanu became involved in the series of work programs initiated by the federal government to keep artists employed during those tough times. Her first mural, done for the Public Works of Art Project of the Civil Works Administration (November 1933 – June 1934) titled San Diego is in the collection of the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C. Other murals were done in anticipation of the California Pacific International Exposition (1935–36) for the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). These included Brothers of the Church, Girl with a Fawn, and Progress of Man. She painted oil on canvas murals in the La Jolla post office (Scenic View of the Village) in 1936 for the Section of Painting and Sculpture, and the Roosevelt Junior High School (Building Padre Dam and Potola's Departure) in 1937–38. Between 1939 and 1940 she completed another WPA mural titled The Seven Arts in the La Jolla High School Auditorium.
Baranceanu was a member of the Chicago Society of Artists.
She exhibited her work at the Art Institute of Chicago, Carnegie Institute, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Denver Art Museum, and others. Baranceanu taught at the La Jolla School of Arts & Crafts and Frances Parker School. She died in La Jolla on January 17, 1988.
