Bent Franklin Larsen was born in Monroe, Utah in 1882. A pioneering art educator and modern landscape painter, he made a varied contribution to Utah’s artistic tradition.  He died in Provo, Utah in 1970.           

Larsen received his education at Snow College and Brigham Young University.  While studying for his M.A., he worked as public school principal (1901–6), served as art supervisor in Springville, Utah (1907–8), and as director of art at the Brigham Young Training School (1908–12).  He earned his M.A. in 1922 from the University of Utah. Larsen studied at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1922.  From 1924 to 1925 he studied in Paris at the Académie Julian.  He returned to Paris for further study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière Coloarissi and at the Académie André Hôte from 1929 to 1930. 

Beginning in 1931 Larsen became an instructor at Brigham Young University and was appointed chair in 1937. He was named professor emeritus in 1953.

Larsen began his career as a landscape painter, but as his career progressed his work became more regionalist and abstract.  Examples of his work are Uzerche Tanner, France(1929), Mine at Mammoth (1932), and Kolob Canyon near Springville (1936). His painting Susquehanna River(1955) bridged the gap between his typical landscape style and his later modernist experimentation.

Biographical information on this page was adapted from the Springville Museum of Art.