Norblin was born to the wealthy factory owner Stanisław Ignacy Norblin. He may have inherited artistic genes from an ancestor, the 18th-century painter Jan Piotr Norblin, a key figure in the Polish Enlightenment and a founder of Polish genre painting, who had worked on commission for the nobility and for King Stanisław August Poniatowski.
Young Norblin’s father expected him to take over the family factory, a prosperous firm producing silverware and industrial metal components. Norblin traveled to Antwerp to attend the Academy of Economy and Trade, completing his studies in 1910. But he devoted much of his time to drawing and painting, and it became apparent that he had more of his ancestor Jan Piotr in him than of his businessman father. Early caricatures and portraits were shown at his first exhibition, at the Memling gallery in Amsterdam in 1913. The artist traveled to Paris and London, where he created illustrations under the alias "Count von Luxembourg". During the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921), Norblin served in the Polish army as a translator.
After the Treaty of Riga brought the war to an end, he settled in Warsaw and his artistic career blossomed. Moving in the cultural circles of the capitol, Norblin became a recognizable figure in interwar social life. Versatile and active in many fields, he was acclaimed for poster design, paintings, commercial art and book covers, and created a popular series of affiches, travel posters advertising Polish cities and regions (Warszawa, 1926). Norblin's painting skills gained him a reputation for fine portraiture, and he portrayed celebrities and important figures (Portrait of Józef Piłsudski, 1935). He worked with flatly laid colours and strong contours, in the popular art-deco style. Along with practicing visual arts, Norblin created interior designs and theatrical scenery, and experimented with fashion and scenic costumes.
He and his wife, Lena Zelichowska, a film star in pre-war Poland, married in 1933. When the Second World War began they left Poland through Romania and eventually reached Iraq, where the artist created portraits of the king and his family. In 1941 the Norblins came to India, which became their home for the next five years. Norblin worked on commission from local noble families, very much as his ancestor Jan Piotr had, painting portraits and decorating maharajas’ palaces. He worked at royal residences in Morvi and Patna, and for his biggest project, the grand palace Umaid Bhawan in Rhajasthan, he created canvases and wall paintings as well as interior and furniture designs. Pieces created during his stay in India merge art deco with local mythology, forming a distinct, assertive style (Shiva and Parvati on Mount Kailas, 1941 - 1946). An exhibition of Norblin’s work was held at the Cowasji Jehangir Hall in Mumbai, the city then named Bombay, in 1944.
The Norblins left India for the U.S. in 1946 (their newborn son’s health problems were attributed to the Indian climate). The artist settled his family near San Francisco, where he found work in a decorating firm and painted portraits of prominent Americans (Portrait of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, 1948) and people of Polish origin. In the 1950s, problems with his eyesight, which were already haunting him, became severe. Norblin suspected that the illness causing his sight to fail was cancer. He couldn’t bear the prospect of not being able to work, and committed suicide.
