page_title: Mahonri Young
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: Mahonri Young / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: This picture was taken by me on May 21st, 2005 at Temple Square.
context_page_description: Mahonri Mackintosh Young was an American social-realist sculptor and artist. During his lengthy career, he created more than 320 sculptures, 590 oil paintings, 5,500 watercolors, 2,600 prints, and thousands of drawings. However, he is primarily recognized for his sculpture. His work includes landscapes, portraits, busts, life-size sculptures, monuments, and engravings. Regardless of his medium of choice, his work is characterized by spontaneity; he often preferred to prepare his work with quick sketches on the scene. He felt this made his work more natural as compared to using a model in the studio. He was fairly commercially successful during his life, though he did not find success until his mid-30s. Large commissions for sculptures from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were particularly lucrative for him.
  Born into a family of rich Mormon pioneer heritage, Young was the grandson of the second President of the LDS Church and first Governor of Utah, Brigham Young. Young was introduced to art by his father at an early age.
context_section_description: Mahonri Young returned to Utah in 1905, needing to find a way to make a living. Due to his lack of success and financial troubles, Young considered years 1905 to 1910 his "five years of exile". His first commission was a butter sculpture for Frost Creamery for the Utah State Fair called The Dairy Maid. Later, Young established a mildly successful art class at the YMCA, but the class was canceled after one of his students started an art club that took away his students in 1906. He managed to maintain some private lessons. Young hoped to make a commission by making and selling a bust of B.H. Roberts, but he did not have money to bronze it until 1908. However, Robert's first wife refused to buy the bust because it did not adequately portray her husband's personality. Young finally received more commission when he and Lee Greene Richards completed a mural for the Isis Movie Theatre, using themselves as models for the characters. This was the first outside mural done in Utah and the only one done by Young. However, news stories about the murals kept being killed, leading Young to believe there was a conspiracy against realist artists. However, there were few career prospects in the United States, as the art scene was dominated by conservative juries who were unwilling to take a chance on unknown artists and were uninterested in unique or groundbreaking styles. Museums and exhibitionists wanted to showcase academic art and did not want to showcase American art. Consequently, Young found it difficult to sell or exhibit his work in the United States. He found little success during his first five years back in the United States. However, a group of realists called "The Eight" hosted an independent exhibition in 1908 in Philadelphia, igniting the success realist artists could find in the United States.
  Young improved his reputation by making a bust of Alfred Lambourne. In early 1907, the LDS Church granted Mahonri Young permission to create a life-size sculpture of Joseph Smith, the first president of the LDS Church, using his death mask. After the LDS Church rejected his work, Young offered to redo the piece and make an additional statue of Hyrum Smith, Joseph Smith's brother. These statues were accepted and currently reside on Temple Square. Despite financial troubles, Young married Cecelia Sharp on February 19, 1907. Young had initially seen Sharp while both in Paris where Sharp had been studying piano; they had not yet met and Sharp had to travel back to Utah due to her father's health began to fail. In Utah, they attended the same LDS Church where Sharp's father was a bishop, but they had not yet met because Sharp was five years older than Young. Young and Sharp met in 1906 while Sharp was giving private piano lessons in Salt Lake City and fell in love. Young made a bust of Sharp in 1906. Polished and beautiful, the bust was different than anything he created during his career.
  Young and Sharp's first child, Cecelia Agnes Young, known as "Agnes" or "Aggie", was born on April 25, 1908.  Continually aware of the revolt of "The Eight", Young traveled to New York in 1908 and 1909 to determine whether he could be successful in New York. After he presented an idea to construct a Seagull Monument to the LDS Church, they were excited about the project, but were unable to fund it. He instead sculpted a frieze to go above the LDS Gymnasium. This was the last project he completed in Utah before he moved to New York. Young felt that he could relate to the styles and the goals of "The Eight", so he and his family moved to New York in 1910. In New York, Young was a founding member of the Society of American Etchers. He did not find success until 1912, which was a turning point in his career. In 1911, Young won the Helen Foster Barnett prize for Bovet-Arthur a Laborer, displayed at the National Academy. His first New York exhibition was held in 1912. Stevedore was shown at the Metropolitan Museum in New York. In the same year, Young was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Associate. Moreover, in 1912, Young proposed the Seagull 
caption: Seagull Monument, 1913. Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah
exif: {}