Mahonri M. Young

American, (1877–1957)

Mahonri Young was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1877. At the age of five he got appendicitis and to keep him entertained, his father would carve guns and other figures out of wood. Worried that Mahonri would hurt himself, his father gave him clay to practice with. He quit school and worked at engraving and portrait making jobs at various newspapers in Salt Lake City. This would help him make money for art lessons and for art school in New York and Paris. Mahonri started his formal art training under James T. Harwood. In 1899 he went to New York to study at the Art Students League. He returned to Salt Lake City a few years laterwhenhe received his first commission. Young continued to sculpt and draw until his death in 1957.