Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Van Soelen demonstrated early artistic talent. He began formal training at the St. Paul Institute of Arts and Sciences from 1908 to 1911. To expand his horizon, he moved east to attend the prestigious Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA). His exceptional skills earned him the coveted Cresson Traveling Scholarship in 1913 and 1914, allowing him to study the European masters and paint across Europe.

At the outbreak of World War I, Van Soelen faced a harrowing journey back across the Atlantic. While traveling through Holland, his ship was shipwrecked off the coast of Ireland. Exposure to the freezing elements caused a severe bout of pneumonia, which quickly progressed into a chronic case of tuberculosis. Following a doctor’s recommendation to seek a warm, arid climate, Van Soelen packed his bags and moved to the American Southwest in 1916.

Van Soelen first settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico, working as a commercial illustrator to support his transition while submitting fine art to East Coast galleries. To deeply integrate himself into the local community, he spent extended periods living on remote cattle ranches and worked for a year at the San Ysidro Indian Trading Post. Unlike transient visitors, he actively worked alongside cowboys, an experience that deeply informed his highly accurate and unromanticized depictions of the western range.

In 1922, Van Soelen married Virginia Morrison Carr and officially joined the booming Santa Fe Art Colony. In 1926, the couple settled permanently in the nearby Tesuque Valley, where they built an adobe home and studio. Van Soelen believed that an artist must live directly among their subjects. His famous painting The Road to Santa Fe reflects this philosophy, capturing his Tesuque neighbors gathering wood in a dramatic, light-filled mountain landscape.

During the Great Depression, Van Soelen took part in federal art programs. His strong narrative style made him an ideal candidate for public art, resulting in notable murals like Buffalo Range (1939) for the Portales Main Post Office and works for the Grant County Courthouse in Silver City.

By the late 1940s, Van Soelen expanded his portfolio into printmaking. He produced an acclaimed series of 18 realistic lithographs dedicated strictly to pre-mechanized cowboy culture, capturing complex scenes of calf branding, cattle drives, and horse training with masterful draftsmanship.

Though rooted in New Mexico, Van Soelen split time between Tesuque and a second studio in Cornwall, Connecticut to stay connected with East Coast buyers. He received national recognition during his lifetime, winning the National Academy's Altman Prize (1930) and getting elected as a full Academician of the National Academy of Design. In 1960, the School of American Research named him an Honorary Fellow in Fine Arts. He passed away in Santa Fe in 1964, leaving behind a profound legacy as one of the Southwest's premier realists.