Carl Wilhelm Edward Arning was born in 1898 in Germania, Texas, and left school after six years to work on his father's farm. In his late twenties, he began to experience symptoms of mental illness; in 1928, after several violent episodes, he was committed to a state hospital in Austin, where he remained until furloughed to a nursing home in 1964 after his symptoms had disappeared. Encouraged by an art teacher at the home, Arning began to draw. His career was further nurtured by a group of collectors who provided materials and friendship. He enjoyed ten productive years during which he made over 2,000 drawings. In 1973, after leaving the home to live with his sister, Arning ceased working.

Stimulated by magazine illustrations, Eddie Arning developed a complex and inventive style. Nine Figures Climbing Trees, based on an illustration of children’s fashions, is a fine example of Arning’s mature work. He has adopted the composition, colors, and details of the original but distilled three-dimensional forms into blocks of saturated color. The children have become stylized figures with frontal torsos, heads in profile, and enormous hands. Their faces are identical, with round eyes punctuated with slashlike eyebrows, question-mark ears, long, narrow noses, and no mouths. Arning also transformed the busy plaids and prints of the original clothes into bold, geometric patterns. The children float among sinuous tree branches and brown-veined green leaves, details that Arning abstracted from the original. The creamy white background and blue and black borders set off the rhythmic patterns of this masterful drawing.

Cheryl Rivers, "Nine Figures Climbing Trees," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 393.