Leon Kroll was born in New York City in 1884 to an impoverished musical family of German-Jewish immigrants. Over his prolific career that lasted over 40 years, Kroll mastered many different genres of painting; he was adept at painting landscapes, still lifes, murals, and nude portraits. George Bellows, the realist painter who specialized in urban scenes, was a close acquaintance of Kroll’s, and the two painted together for many years. Kroll associated himself with the post-Eight circle, which included Bellows, Robert Henri, William Glackens, Arthur B. Davies, and John Sloan. Although Leon Kroll won many awards for his art throughout his life, his style of painting was largely obscured by that of the abstract impressionists after he stopped painting. Deservedly, his paintings are receiving increasing levels of attention and speculation. He is arguably best known for his murals at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., the State Capitol of Indiana, and the Omaha Beach War Memorial in France.

The native New Yorker had a childhood interest in art and was already assisting the President of the Art Students League at the age of fifteen. In 1901, Kroll enrolled at the Art Students League and trained under the American impressionist, John Twatchtman, and with the encouragement of Winslow Homer. After two years, Kroll began taking classes at the National Academy of Design, where he won awards and a scholarship for his paintings that funded a trip to France in 1908. In Paris, Kroll studied at the Académie Julian with the help of Jean-Paul Laurens, the French Realist painter. Kroll incorporated European styles into his paintings and he greatly admired the work of Paul Cézanne. Kroll successfully launched his career when he returned to the United States in 1910, earning his first one-man exhibition at the National Academy of Design. He was a participant in the legendary 1913 Armory Show that introduced modern art to the American populace. When Kroll was not lecturing and inspiring young artists at prestigious institutions, such as the National Academy of Design and the Chicago Art Institute, he was painting in Paris, Santa Fe, Maine, Woodstock, and Massachusetts. He was known to be joyful and people-loving and those characteristics frequently surface in Kroll’s work.