moved frequently due to his father's career and it wasn't until 1910 that they settled in Hubbard Woods where Ivan and Malvin could attend New Trier High School. By 1915 Ivan entered the College of Liberal Arts of Northwestern University, which he failed out of. His brother enrolled at the same school shortly after. In 1916 he began to study at the University of Illinois at Urbana, at the time considering careers in architecture or chemical engineering. It was not until 1918, after a family painting trip to Caracas, Venezuela, that Ivan began to take seriously the possibility of becoming an artist. That same year he publicly exhibited his first work – a watercolor study of the trees hear his home in Hubbard Woods entitled The Oaks in Winter – at the Art Institute of Chicago's Annual Watercolor exhibition. The entry of the United States into World War I likewise disrupted his early adult life as both he and his brother were enlisted in the United States Army as part of the Medical Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces. While stationed in Nantes, France between 1918 and 1919, Albright produced at least eight sketchbooks of medical drawings illustrating surgeries and wounds in graphite and watercolor. While Albright was not yet an accomplished draftsman, art historians and critics often cite these illustrations as the catalyst of his interest in the fragility of the flesh and humanity for those suffering. After briefly working in architecture and advertising, in 1920 both he and his brother entered the Art Institute of Chicago. While Malvin studied sculpture, Ivan studied painting – each receiving standard, academic training in line with the institute's traditional philosophy. He stayed there until he graduated in 1923, having exhibited The Philosopher (1922) and receiving Faculty Honorable Mention in both Life and Portrait Painting. Following his time at the Art Institute, he continued his studies at his father's alma mater the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with the intention of learning from George Bellows. Bellows was at the time, however, on sabbatical in Europe and so Ivan instead chose to move to the National Academy of Design to study under Charles Webster Hawthorne. Having completed his formal education, in 1925 he and his brother Malvin rented a studio in Philadelphia and his professional career as an artist began. Early and mid-career (1925–1950) Between 1925 and 1926, Albright's mature "baroque" formal style