Belle Baranceanu

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 forward childhood, and she grew up on her maternal grandparents' farm in North Dakota.

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 scholastic and exhibitor, she worked in Los Angeles, California in 1927–1928. She moved to San Diego in 1933.

She painted oil on canvas murals in the La Jolla make known 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 unusual WPA mural titled The Seven Arts in the La Jolla High School Auditorium.

Baranceanu was a believer of the Chicago Society of Artists.

She exhibited her undertaking 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.