Arthur John Black, landscape and figure painter, was born in Nottingham, England in 1855. He studied in Paris at l'Académie des Beaux-Arts under Benjamin Constant. In 1890, Black was living in London where he spent the majority of his life. He was a member of the New Society of Painters in Watercolours and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Black exhibited at the Royal Academy thirty-six times and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters fifty-four times. He held his first solo exhibition in 1907 at the Leicester Galleries.

Aside from working in oil and watercolor, Black also painted murals and stage scenery. His work is represented in the Nottingham Castle Museum, the Guernsey Museum, and the Torre Abbey Museum of the United Kingdom.

Arthur John Black moved to Dorset in 1931 and remained there until his death in 1936.