Arthur studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Hermann Groeber school of painting in Munich, and continued his studies in Italy. In 1915 he graduated from the Realgymnasium in Marburg and then studied art history, German and history at the University of Frankfurt am Main. In 1918 he received his doctorate in philosophy. In 1920 he passed the exam for the higher teaching profession. He worked in Frankfurt as a lecturer in art history at the Bund für Volksbildung and at the Jüdisches Lehrhaus.

He emigrated to England in 1939. He worked until 1946 as an art teacher at the college in Ellesmere, Shropshire. In 1947 he was naturalized and then lived in London, where he maintained his own gallery. From 1947 to 1950 he taught at the local Hammersmith School of Art and then until 1952 at the Borough Polytechnic.