Born in Borbruisk, Russia, Leon Garland arrived in the United States in 1913 when he was seventeen years old. He settled in Chicago where he became a multi-faceted artist whose mediums included oil painting, textile designs, batik, metal, lithography and stained glass. Throughout his career, he seemed disinterested in selling his work but was concerned about the critiques of his professional peers.

He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and also at Hull House School of Art where he later taught textile and metal crafts. There he met Sadie Ellis, who became his wife in 1927, and they traveled widely in Europe and studied in Paris at the Andre Lhote School.

Garland's paintings focus on the potential dignity of human beings a...