He was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and studied there at the Royal Danish Academy of Art (Det Kongelige Danske Kunstakademi) under Wilhelm Marstrand.

Bloch's parents wanted their son to enter what they considered to be a respectable profession – an officer in the Navy.

In a New Year's letter from 1866 to Bloch, H. C. Andersen wrote the following: "What God has arched on solid rock will not be swept away!"

The altarpieces can be found at Holbæk, Odense, Ugerløse and Copenhagen in Denmark, as well as Löderup, Hörup, and Landskrona in Sweden.

Madsen also said "If there is an Elysium, where the giant, rich, warm and noble artist souls meet, there Carl Bloch will sit among the noblest of them all!".

The church's interest in Bloch's work was generally kickstarted with Doyle L. Green, who valued the classically-trained realism of his artwork, as opposed to the trend towards abstraction in contemporary art of the time.

[5] Through the assistance of Danish-born artist Soren Edsberg (born 1945), the acquisition of Christ Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (formerly owned by Indre Mission, Copenhagen, Denmark) was made possible for Brigham Young University's (BYU) Museum of Art.