| Summary: | American artist and sculptor. Grandson of Brigham Young. Primary places of residence included Salt Lake City, Utah; New York City; Paris, France; and Branchville, Connecticut. Correspondence, sketchbooks, research files, autobiographical files, scrapbooks, and news clippings. Also includes diaries, address and memorandum books, and financial records. Most letters were exchanged with family members and close friends. Primary correspondents included his son, Mahonri Sharp Young; his first wife, Cecilia Sharp Young; and Mary Lightfoot Tarleton, whom he met in Paris after Cecilia died in 1917. Research files include extensive information on other artists. Mahonri MacKintosh Young was born August 9, 1877, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the firstborn son of Mahonri Moriancumer Young and Agnes MacKintosh Young, and the last grandchild born to Latter-day-Saint Prophet Brigham Young before his death. Later, Mahonri was joined by twin brothers named Waldemar and Winfield Scott. (1) Mahonri--s father dubbed the boy --œHon-- as it had been his own nickname when he was a youngster. The rest of the family, including mother, grandmother, and two brothers called him --œHonrie-- until after the untimely death of the elder Mahonri of heart failure. Then, the little fellow permanently acquired the affectionate nickname of --œHon-- as his father had intended. (2) He spent the first years of his life in Parley--s Canyon at the Deseret Woolen Mills, which his parents managed with --œwoefully insufficient capital.-- (3) Hon--s artistic inclinations were awakened at an early age by his father. When the boy was about five years old and recovering from an illness, his father amused him by carving objects out of wood. (4) Later, the budding artist began to shape objects out of the clay taken from the cut banks near the factory. (5) Mahonri had happy memories of life at the mill. In later years, as he gathered thoughts for his autobiography he noted, It was a place to dream of and regret. There were farmers and a farm; there were workmen and working women at the mill; there were animals and birds, and in all directions beautiful landscapes . . . there was clay in the cut bank of the Dugway. Some of this I was given to play with, and I modeled birds and animals as any child would.(6) Mahonri--s father died when he was just seven years old. That unfortunate event made it necessary for his mother to move the family from the mill to a small home on --œC-- street in Salt Lake City. There, Hon was entered in public school and attended up through the eighth grade. He was fond of recalling, in later life, that the most vital piece of art instruction he ever received was from his eighth grade teacher, Mrs. Alta Wiggins. He said she told him, --œWhen you draw a straight line, look at the point where the line is going to end, not at the point of your pencil.-- (7) After attending just one day of high school, Mahonri refused to go back. He was ready to get on with his life, and by age eighteen was working at the Salt Lake Tribune as a sketch artist and photo engraver. Two years later, in the company of two boyhood friends, artists Alma B. Wright and Lee Greene Richards, he began taking art classes from James T. Harwood. Harwood had recently returned from art study in Paris. Mahonri was enchanted with the Paris Salon Catalogs brought back by his teacher. He was an eager student, devouring everything his teacher and any art books had to offer. Mahonri looked upon Harwood as his only real teacher. (8) The year of 1899 found Mahonri attending classes at the Art Students League in New York under Kenyon Cox. One year later he was back at the Salt Lake Herald, working as a photo engraver to earn enough money to study art in Paris. By 1901 Mahonri was in Paris where he undertook a two-year course of work at the Julian, Colarossi, and Delecluse academies. Soon he began a serious independent study of etching at his own Paris studio, as well as engaging in sculpting and painting. During the summer of that year he studied under Jean-Paul Laurens, at the Julian, where he became acquainted with such noted artists as Winslow Homer, James Whistler, Aristide Maillol, Childe Hassam, William M. Chase, and John Twachtman.In the summer of 1903 Mahonri made a brief visit back to the United States to exhibit two sculptures in the American Art Association Show. He immediately returned to Paris for an additional two years of study. Later in life he reflected that the years spent studying in France were the most important influence on his artistic education.Mahonri returned to New York in 1905 where he accepted a position as an instructor at the American School of Sculpture. (9) He was also invited to exhibit five bronzes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts annual show. The sculptures were the statuette of artist Alfred Maurer (also known as --œAlfie--), and French peasant working figures which included --œThe Shoveler,-- --œThe Chiseler,-- --œThe Laborer,-- and --œRest.-- In addition, he displayed some water colors and pastels. All the works were pieces he had created while studying in Europe. The Academy arranged to have the bronzes brought to America from France where they had been on exhibit in Paris Salons. (10) After about a year in New York, Mahonri returned to Salt Lake City where, on February 19, 1907, he married Cecilia Sharp, daughter of Bishop John Sharp. She was a talented pianist as well as very beautiful, and shortly after their marriage the artist sculpted a bust of his young wife and cast it in bronze. He captured the image of a gracious, spiritual, and gifted woman. The original plaster model for the bronze is in the Mahonri M. Young Collection at the Museum of Art at Brigham Young University.The following year, Mahonri--s first child and only daughter was born. She was named Cecilia Agnes Young, Cecilia for her mother and Agnes for Mahonri--s mother. The same year, the young father landed his first commission to create sculpture in Utah. H. J. Faust commissioned him to sculpt a woman in butter for the Fox Creameries to be exhibited at the Utah State Fair. Unfortunately, someone failed to properly monitor the refrigeration for the display and the butter woman began to melt, but not before she was noted and well received. It was this unlikely piece of work that established Mahonri as a serious artist and he was granted several major commissions thereafter.His first major work after the butter woman was in 1909 when Mahonri designed and executed a work he titled --œField Day,-- a bas-relief frieze for the east wall of the Deseret Gymnasium in Salt Lake City. The work was beautifully executed in the classical mode, reminiscent of the style found on ancient Greek temples but illustrating contemporary figures engaged in sport and games.The following year Mahonri completed bronze statues of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith to be displayed at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Upon the completion of that project in 1910, the small family moved back to New York City where Mahonri hoped to further his career. By 1911 he received his first notable award. It was the Helen Foster Prize from the National Academy of Design for a fifteen-inch bronze sculpture titled, --œArthur Bovet, a Laborer.-- The little bronze brought Mahonri the recognition he sought in the East. The same year, Cecilia gave birth to their second child and only son, named Mahonri Sharp Young. He had his father--s and grandfather--s first name and his mother--s maiden name, but the family called him Bill.In 1912 Mahonri was elected as an associate member to the National Academy of Design. That same year he and artist Howard McCormick were commissioned by the New York Museum of Natural History to create an exhibition replica of Pueblo Indian life. He made the first of many trips to Arizona where he studied the lifestyle of Hopi, Navajo and Apache Indians. (11) During the same time period he had been at work completing the sculptures for the Seagull Monument which stands on the grounds of Temple Square in Salt Lake City for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Mahonri returned to Salt Lake City in 1913 for the dedication of the now famous work. According to Mahonri--s son, it was the Seagull Monument that gave his father his first real break and was the foundation for all that followed. (12) As a result of that success, Mahonri became established as a sculptor. Over the next few years he participated in notable exhibits, such as the Armory Show of 1913 in New York City, and he kept busy with many important commissions. In 1915 he completed another bas-relief panel, eight-by-thirty-five feet, portraying creative labor. It was placed over the entrance to the manufacturers-- building at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition by San Francisco--s Golden Gate. He was awarded a Silver Medal for Sculpture in recognition of that work. By 1916 he had created an Apache Group for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. That same year he was invited to serve on the faculty of the Art Students League in New York. He taught print-making, painting, and illustration as well as sculpture intermittently at that facility until 1943. (13) In 1917, just ten years after their marriage, Cecilia Sharp Young died at Leonia, New Jersey. Mahonri was left a widower with two small children. For the next five years, little is recorded of his personal activities.Mahonri continued to work and in 1923 was made an Academician of the National Academy and elected vice president of the Institute of Arts and Letters. That same year he completed the sculptural program for his Monument to the Dead in Paris, France, for the American Pro-Cathedral. The following year saw the unveiling of his Navajo Group at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.In 1925 Mahonri took his two children (Agnes was seventeen years old and Bill was fourteen) to Paris for a stay of two and a-half years. It was also during this time that his correspondence with Mary Lightfoot Tarleton began. Their friendship developed into a May/December romance. Mahonri was forty-eight years old in 1925, and Mary was twenty-one. Mary was an aspiring sculptor and had great admiration for the older man. Much of their five-year-long friendship is documented in letters found in this collection. They shared a common interest in art, travel, books, and their work.Mahonri--s son, Bill, later remembered the time in Paris as one of the most fruitful periods of his father--s life. He wrote, --œhe was freed from teaching and from the pressure of commissions, and he had again the great advantage of working in an atmosphere where art was important and natural.-- (14) He also noted this was the period when the majority of the boxers were done. (15) The year 1928 found him back in New York City with his first exhibition of Prize Ring bronzes at the Rehn Galleries. According to his son, Mahonri did not like New York, but New York loved him, especially during these years. The artist kept a studio on 57th Street. It was close to the art dealers and the Art Students League, and most important, the Century Club where he was an active member for forty years. Bill wrote, --œhe loved the place.-- (16) The crash of 1929 did not impact Mahonri M. Young as it did most of America. He continued to enjoy a successful career. In fact, that year found him in Hollywood, California, creating a variety of sculptures for Fox Studios. While there he was commissioned to sculpt an image of fighter Joe Gans for Winfield J. Sheehan, manager of Fox Films. While in California he also had the opportunity to spend time with his brother, Waldemar, who was a movie script writer. (17) The three-month period that Mahonri spent in Hollywood was productive. He executed nineteen pieces of sculpture for use in the Fox film, --œFriend of Napoleon.-- His work included a statuette of --œThe Little Emperor,-- and busts of Svengali and Franz Schubert, as well as a life-sized statue of boxer Joe Gans. He also completed several medallions and a fountain to be part of the architectural design of the new studio in Fox Hills. His work so attracted the attention of Fox manager Winfield R. Sheehan that the latter ordered several pieces cast in bronze for his Beverly Hills home. (18) On February 17, 1931, Mahonri took a wife. He married artist Dorothy Weir, the daughter and granddaughter of artists J. Alden Weir and Robert Weir, respectively. Mahonri had been acquainted with J. Alden Weir for many years. The elder artist had been the president of the National Academy when Mahonri was a young man, and had been a longtime supporter of his work. The new Mr. and Mrs. Young made their home in Branchville, Connecticut, where he worked in a wonderful sculptor--s studio. They also maintained an apartment on Grammercy Park in New York.Dorothy was a wonderful and supportive companion. She helped create an environment so that Mahonri--s last years would continue to be successful. In 1932 he won first prize for sculpture at the Los Angeles Olympic Games Exhibition with a piece entitled, --œThe Knockdown.-- His etching, --œPont Neuf,-- was included in Fine Prints of the Year, 1933. In 1935 he was honored with an exhibition of his complete etching collection at the Krausbaar Galleries in New York City. That same year he attended the unveiling of his Father Kino Monument in Tucson, Arizona. While he and Dorothy were in the west for the unveiling they spent several months in Salt Lake City.On February 28, 1939, Governor Henry H. Blood and the Twenty-Third Legislative Assembly of the state of Utah approved Mahonri--s design for the --œThis is the Place-- Monument. It was the greatest commission of his career. His competitor for the honor was none other than noted sculptor Dr. Avard Fairbanks, also a descendant of 1847 pioneers and head of the Department of Sculpture at the University of Michigan. Mahonri--s son wrote,The elaboration of the plan and the reliefs and figures for This is the Place consumed many years. He was a very rapid worker, but his rapid work came after a big period of planning and studying and getting everything right. Into this work, which crowned his career, went the knowledge, the insight and the study of a lifetime. It is a unique summing up, a perfect matching of artist and opportunity. It is the monument of the whole West(19) Mahonri was wont to engage family and friends as models for his works. His grandson, Charles Mahonri Lay, recalls that at about age eight he was an unwilling model for the little boy in the Donner Party relief sculpture on --œThis is the Place-- Monument. He recalls with humor that his grandfather was just a little disgusted at his youthful lack of enthusiasm for the opportunity to be immortalized in stone. (20) Concurrent with research and work on the monument, Mahonri enjoyed honors and continued to work at other commissions. The year 1940 saw a retrospective exhibit of his work at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. Evidence that he remained friends with Mary Lightfoot Tarleton rests in the fact that this collection contains a program from that exhibit which Mahonri inscribed to her along with two pen-and-ink drawings inside: goats in a simple landscape and on the verso a little self-portrait he was fond of drawing in cartoon style.In 1942 the American College Society of Print Collectors presented a limited edition print of one of his etchings. Mahonri had given the work a double title: --œSpring in Connecticut-- or --œJoe Knoche Builds a New Stone Wall.-- The following year he was commissioned to create a memorial tablet in honor of William Henry Jackson, pioneer photographer, to be placed at Scott--s Bluff, Nebraska. Also in 1943, the Philadelphia Museum of Art purchased eight of Mahonri--s etchings for their collection. In the ensuing years he continued to exhibit drawings.On May 28, 1947, Mahonri was widowed for the second time. Dorothy died just a few months before the dedication and unveiling of --œThis is the Place-- Monument at the mouth of Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake City. It was sad for Mahonri that she was not able to share in the special moment which she had so willingly supported. The monument was dedicated Thursday, July 24, 1947 before a crowd of more than twenty-three thousand persons (21) Appropriately, Mahonri--s last major work was the marble statue of his paternal grandfather, LDS Prophet Brigham Young. The work was carved at the American Academy in Rome. On June 1, 1950, the statue was unveiled in the rotunda of the Nation--s Capitol in Washington, D. C. It was a proud moment for the artist, for Utah, and for the Church.Mahonri spent his remaining years actively engaged in social life that centered around the home he and Dorothy had shared in Connecticut and the apartment on Grammercy Park in New York. He kept busy finishing up projects and getting his house in order. In 1955 he took part in a Commemorative Exhibition of the Armory Show in New York City.On November 2, 1957, Mahonri MacKintosh Young died peacefully in a hospital at Norwalk, Connecticut. He was eighty years old.References(1) Mahonri Sharp Young, Brigham Young University Franklin S. Harris Fine Arts Center, Mahonri M. Young, Dedicatory Exhibit, April l965.(2) Mahonri M. Young, unpublished projected autobiographical notes, BYU Special Collections and Manuscripts.(3) Ibid.(4) Salt Lake Tribune, September 29, 1946.(5) Addison Gallery of American Art, Mahonri M. Young Retrospective, Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. 1940, 8.(6) Mahonri M. Young, unpublished projected autobiographical notes, BYU Special Collections. (7) Addison Gallery, 9.(8) BYU Harris Fine Arts Center Dedicatory Exhibit April 1965.(9) Addison Gallery, 21.(10) Salt Lake Tribune, November 24, 1905.(11) Deseret Evening News, April 17, 1915.(12) BYU Harris Fine Arts Center Dedicatory Exhibit April 1965.(13) Salt Lake Tribune, January 18, 1948.(14) BYU Harris Fine Arts Center Dedicatory Exhibit April 1965.(15) Ibid.(16) Ibid.(17) Ibid. Waldemar had moved from San Francisco to write scenarios in the early days of movies and had stayed on to write for Cecil B. DeMille and films starring such movie greats as Shirley Temple and Lon Chaney.(18) The Young Business Man, 4 September 1929, .(19) BYU Harris Fine Arts Center Dedicatory Exhibit, April 1965.(20) Personal conversation with Charles Mahonri Lay, May 17, 1996 in the Reading Room of the Special Collections & Manuscripts Department at Brigham Young University.(21) Salt Lake Tribune, July 25, 1947. 1877Born: August 9, Salt Lake City, Utah1884Death of father, Mahonri Moriancumer Young1895Worked for Salt Lake Tribune as a sketch artist and photo engraver 1897Attended Harwood--s class in Salt Lake City, Utah1899Studied at Art Students League in New York City1900Worked as photo engraver for Salt Lake Herald to earn money for art studies in Paris, France1901Studied at the Julian, Delecluse, and Colarossi academies in Paris, France1903Came home for brief visit, exhibited --œMan Tired-- and --œThe Shoveler-- in the American Art Association show, and returned to Paris1905Accepted a position as instructor at the American School of Sculpture in New York1907Returned to Salt Lake City and Married Cecilia Sharp, February 19Sculpted Figure of a --œWoman in Butter-- for Fox Creameries, which was exhibited at the Utah State Fair1909Designed --œField Day,-- a bas-relief for the east wall of the Deseret Gymnasium in Salt Lake City1910Completed bronze statues of Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith for Temple Square in Salt Lake CityMoved to New York City1911Birth of son, Mahonri Sharp YoungReceived first notable award for art: The Helen Foster Barnet Prize from the National Academy of Design, for --œBovet Arthur--A Laborer--Began first of his trips to Arizona for early studies of Hopi, Navajo, Apache and related Native Americans1913Dedication of Seagull Monument in Salt Lake, CityParticipated in Armory Show in New York City1915Received commission for Apache Habitat Group from the American Museum of Natural HistoryTraveled to Arizona with John Held, Jr.Received Silver Medal for Sculpture from the Panama-Pacific International Exposition1916Unveiled --œApache Group-- in American Museum of Natural HistoryBegan teaching at Art Students League in New York City1917Death of wife, Cecilia Sharp Young, at Leonia, New Jersey1923Commissioned for Monument to the Dead located in Paris, France, in the American Pro-CathedralElected as academician to the National AcademyElected vice president, Institute of Arts and Letters1924Unveiled --œNavajo Group-- in American Museum of Natural History1925Returned to Paris with his two children to spend two and a-half yearsBegan correspondence with Mary Lightfoot Tarleton1928First exhibition of --œPrize Ring-- bronzes at Rehn Galleries in New York1929Lived in Hollywood, California, for several months, where he completed a Bronze of Joe Gans for Winfield J. Sheehan, manager of Fox Film Co.1930Correspondence with Mary Lightfoot Tarleton ends1931Married second wife, artist Dorothy Weir, daughter of artist J. Alden Weir1932Won first prize for sculpture at the Los Angeles Olympics Games Exhibition for --œThe Knockdown.-- Also exhibited --œThere Lies the Trail--1934Etching, --œPont Neuf,-- included in Fine Prints of the Year, 1933Joined faculty as instructor of sculpture at the Art Students League in New York1935Honored with unanimous selection for membership in the National Institute of Arts and LettersExhibition of complete etching collection at the Krausbaar Galleries in New YorkTraveled to Tucson, Arizona, for unveiling of Father Kino MonumentSpent several months in Salt Lake City1939Received commission for --œThis is the Place-- Monument, LDS Church, Salt Lake City1940Retrospective Exhibit at the Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts1943Received commission for memorial tablet to William H. Jackson, pioneer photographer, in Scotts Bluff, NebraskaPhiladelphia Museum of Art purchased eight etchings for their collection1947Death of second wife, Dorothy Weir Young, May 28Unveiling and Dedication of --œThis is the Place Monument,-- Salt Lake City, at the mouth of Emigration Canyon1950Unveiling of Brigham Young statue in the Capitol Rotunda, Washington, D. C., June 1Last trip to Utah1955Participated in the Armory Show Commemorative Exhibition in New York City, December 21957Died, November 2, at Norwalk, Connecticut; Contains Mahonri M. Young correspondence, sketchbooks, research files, and material for a projected autobiography. Also includes diaries, address and memorandum books, and bank records. Most of the letters were exchanged with family members and close friends but correspondence with others, including business correspondence, is also included. Primary correspondents include his son, Mahonri Sharp Young; his first wife, Cecilia Sharp Young; and Mary Lightfoot Tarleton, a female acquaintance whom he met in Paris after Cecilia died in 1917. An important section of the collection is the material he prepared for his projected autobiography. Family members remembered him jotting down thoughts and arranging and rearranging earlier notes for the purpose of writing his life story. The collection includes almost 150 folders of these notes, some several pages in length, arranged by topic. The collection also includes an extensive number of newspaper clippings which follow Mahonri--s life and career. Mahonri--s forty-five sketchbooks constitute another valuable part of the collection. He arranged these by subject for his own reference. Titles range from --œEarliest Drawings, 1895-- to --œHollywood, Santa Barbara, 1929--; and from --œsheep-- to --œbuffalo.--Young--s working reference files reflect his efforts to collect articles about artists, authors, journalists, illustrators, cartoonists, sculptors, architects, and politicians. He also collected a large variety of examples of the work of other artists. These reference files are arranged alphabetically by either name or subject.The collection includes typescript copies of the letters, and photocopies of the sketchbooks. The copies were prepared by Special Collections at Brigham Young University.
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