page_title: Avard Fairbanks
section_title: Early life and education
hierarchical_section_title: Avard Fairbanks / Life / Early life and education
caption_attribution_description: English: J. Leo Fairbanks and brother Avard T. Fairbanks in about 1912. J. Leo had come to New York City on vacation to visit. His younger brother Avard was studying at the Art Students League and at the Brooklyn Zoological Park, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This photo and many others are used in the book, "Adventures of a Young Sculptor: The development and early life of Avard T. Fairbanks, a 20th century American sculptor." http://www.fairbanksartbooks.com/Adventures_Young_Sculptor.html
context_page_description: Avard Tennyson Fairbanks was a 20th-century American sculptor. Over his eighty-year career, he sculpted over 100 public monuments and hundreds of artworks. Fairbanks is known for his religious-themed commissions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints including the Three Witnesses, Tragedy of Winter Quarters, and several Angel Moroni sculptures on LDS temple spires. Additionally, Fairbanks sculpted over a dozen Abraham Lincoln-themed sculptures and busts among which the most well-known reside in the U.S. Supreme Court Building and Ford's Theatre Museum.
  From a young age, Fairbanks was a talented artist. At 13 years old, he attended the Art Students League of New York on scholarship and his work was displayed at the National Academy of Design a year later. In 1913, he studied abroad in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts where he was the youngest student admitted to the French salons. He taught sculpture at several universities and attended medical school at the University of Michigan where he earned a doctorate in anatomical studies in order to better represent the human body in his art.
context_section_description: Avard Tennyson Fairbanks was born on March 2, 1897 in Provo, Utah. He was the last and eleventh child of the artist John Fairbanks and Lilly Annetta Huish. Fairbanks was introduced to art by his father and brother J. Leo Fairbanks. His first piece of art was a small, clay rabbit that won first prize in the 1909 Utah State Fair. However, after the judge learned of Fairbanks's young age, he revoked the prize. Fairbanks joined his father in New York City to copy art pieces at the Metropolitan Museum where he was reluctantly received by the curators due to his inexperience. However, he showed great skill and was called a "young Michelangelo" by the New York Herald, which led to other commissions for Fairbanks such as animal models for the Bronx Zoological Gardens. There, he was instructed by Anna Hyatt Huntington and Charles R. Knight.
  He attended the Art Students League of New York on scholarship at age 13, instructed by James Earle Fraser. By the age of 14, his art was displayed at the National Academy of Design. He promptly returned to Utah after 18 months studying in New York, to prepare to study art abroad. Fairbanks and his father tried to obtain as many commissions as possible to pay for his study abroad. Among these commissions was a lion he sculpted out of butter for the Utah State Fair, channeling the butter sculpture fable of Antonio Canova. This sculpture attracted a large audience and was well received.
  In 1913, Fairbanks studied at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, instructed by Jean Antoine Injalbert. Additionally, he studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, the Académie Colarossi, and the École Moderne. He became the youngest student admitted to the French Salon; however, his studies were cut short due to World War I. Fairbanks and his father escaped Europe on the last train out of Paris and the last spots available on the boat Ansonia leaving Liverpool, returning to New York with only fifteen cents between the two of them.
caption: J. Leo Fairbanks and brother Avard T. Fairbanks, 1912 in New York City, while Avard was studying art
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "900", "Image ImageLength": "1350", "Image BitsPerSample": "8", "Image Compression": "LZW", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "1", "Image ImageDescription": "J. Leo Fairbanks and brother Avard T. Fairbanks in about 1912.  J. Leo had come to New York City on vacation to visit. His younger brother Avard was studying at the Art Students League and at the Brooklyn Zoological Park, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This photo and many others are used in the book, \"Adventures of a Young Sculptor: The development and early life of Avard T. Fairbanks, a 20th century American sculptor.\" http://www.fairbanksartbooks.com/Adventures_Young_Sculptor.html", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "1", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2019:05:13 10:39:09", "Image Artist": "Eugene F. Fairbanks' family ephemera", "Image Copyright": "Since I, Eugene F. Fairbanks, am the executor of the estate of Avard T. Fairbanks, I will grant the privilege of copying any copyrighted subjects to this photograph. (CC BY-SA 4.0)", "Image ExifOffset": "988", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1138", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4834", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "900", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1350"}