{{Short description|American landscape painter}} {{for|people with a similar name|John Fairbank (disambiguation)}} thumb|200px|John B Fairbanks<br>(date unknown, 1890s?) '''John B Fairbanks''' (December 27, 1855, in Payson, Utah – June 15, 1940, in Salt Lake City) was an American landscape painter.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Olpin |first1=Robert |last2=Rugh |first2=Thomas |title=Painters of the Wasatch Mountains |publisher=Gibbs Smith |location=Salt Lake City |page=43 |isbn=1586858505|year=2005 }}</ref> In 1890, he was one of a group of artists who studied in Paris under the sponsorship of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in preparation for painting murals at the nearly completed Salt Lake Temple. He painted murals in the Salt Lake Temple and the Mesa Arizona Temple that still exist today. Fairbanks was the official photographer for the South American expeditions of Benjamin Cluff. Fairbanks was the first artist to live and paint in Zion National Park. He was an early art instructor at Brigham Young Academy and was one of the founding members of the Utah Art Institute. Fairbanks was the father of artists John Leo Fairbanks (painter and sculptor), Ortho Lane Fairbanks (1887-1962; sculptor) and Avard Tennyson Fairbanks (sculptor).
==Biography== ===Early life=== John B Fairbanks was born on December 27, 1855, in Payson, Utah. He was the first Latter-day Saint artist born in Utah territory.<ref name="missionary">{{cite web |title=John B. Fairbanks |url=https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/missionary/individual/john-b-fairbanks-1855?lang=eng |website=Church History |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |accessdate=May 31, 2019}}</ref><ref name="canyon">{{cite book |last1=Poulton |first1=Donna L. |last2=Swanson |first2=Vern G. |title=Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts |date=2009 |publisher=Gibbs Smith |location=Salt Lake City |isbn=9781423601845 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vCU5IvPTtqsC&q=john+b+fairbanks&pg=PA49 |accessdate=June 7, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|49}} His parents were John Boylston Fairbanks (1817-1875) and Sarah H. Van Wagoner Fairbanks (1822-1898).<ref name="byu">{{cite web |last1=Warburton |first1=Brian A. |title=John B. Fairbanks |url=https://lib.byu.edu/collections/mormon-missionary-diaries/about/diarists/john-b-fairbanks/ |website=BYU Library |publisher=Brigham Young University |accessdate=May 31, 2019}}</ref> His father was an early pioneer who had come to Utah from Winter Quarters in 1847;<ref name="thesis">{{cite thesis |last1=Cope |first1=Rachel |title=John B. Fairbanks: The Man Behind the Canvas |type=MA thesis |publisher=Brigham Young University |date=August 2003 |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4620/ |accessdate=June 7, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|38}} and died from pneumonia on May 14, 1875, leaving Fairbanks to care for the family.<ref name="byu" /> Although he showed an early interest in art, he had no inclination to pursue it as a career until, in 1877, he visited the studios of John Hafen, an aspiring artist his own age.<ref name="byu" /> Fairbanks would sit in Hafen's studio and watch him paint in between working in the field and playing baseball. He would hide his paintings and other works, because he did not want to disappoint his family. When he eventually showed a finished painting to his mother, she initially did not believe he painted it, but was proud of Fairbanks when his sisters confirmed that he had painted it.<ref name="bradley">{{cite journal |last1=Bradley |first1=Martha Elizabeth |last2=Durham Jr. |first2=Lowell M. |title=John Hafen and the Art Missionaries |journal=Journal of Mormon History |date=1985 |volume=12 |pages=91–105 |jstor=23285891 }}</ref>{{rp|92}} Hafen became his lifelong friend and mentor.<ref name="survey">{{cite book |last1=Swanson |first1=Vern G. |last2=Olpin |first2=Robert S. |last3=Poulton |first3=Donna L. |last4=Rogers |first4=Janie L. |title=Utah Art Artists |date=2001 |publisher=Springville Museum of Art |location=Springville, Utah |isbn=158685111X |page=35 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDsALaUZapUC&q=avard+fairbanks |accessdate=June 4, 2019}}</ref> Fairbanks would paint in the evenings and Saturdays.<ref name="bradley" />{{rp|92}}thumb|left|250px|''Utah Farm'' (1893)
===Missionary service=== John B Fairbanks served as a missionary for the LDS Church in the Southern States Mission from October 1881 to September 1883.<ref name="missionary" /> He assumed he would no longer be able to pursue a painting career.<ref name="bradley" />{{rp|92}} Fairbanks married Lilly Annetta Huish on June 24, 1877 in Payson.<ref name="byu" /> His paintings were not successful, so he found it necessary to take other work, which ranged from assisting the photographer, George Edward Anderson, to selling newspapers.<ref name="thesis" /> He painted furniture in his father-in-law's store.<ref name="byu" /> Additionally, he worked with Hafen to make and sell crayon enlargements of photos.<ref name="bradley" />{{rp|92}} In 1890, at the request of Hafen, Fairbanks joined Hafen, Edwin Evans, and Lorus Pratt to study at the Académie Julian in Paris on a two-year scholarship from the LDS Church.<ref name="survey" /><ref name="Zion Art Society">{{cite podcast |url=https://www.zionartsociety.org/podcast/2017/7/21/special-edition-the-lds-art-missionaries-in-paris |title=Special Edition: The LDS Art Missionaries in Paris |website=Zion Art Society |publisher=Zion Art Society |date=July 25, 2017 |access-date=June 4, 2019}}</ref><ref name="bradley" /> Their objective was to develop their art skills and techniques in order to design and paint murals for the nearly completed Salt Lake Temple.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Paris Art Mission |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/global-histories/france/stories-of-faith/fr-07-the-paris-art-mission-bb?lang=eng |website=Church of Jesus Christ.org |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |accessdate=June 7, 2019}}</ref> Their primary instructor was Albert Rigolot, and they became known as the "French Art Missionaries".<ref name="survey" /><ref name="Zion Art Society"/><ref name="bradley" />{{rp|94}} Fairbanks was the only one of his American colleagues whose art was not accepted in the concours in the first year.<ref name="bradley" />{{rp|102}} Upon their return, they executed the murals and frescoes for the Salt Lake Temple, which was dedicated in 1893. Years later, he also helped to decorate the Church Administration Building and the Mesa Arizona Temple.<ref name="willard">{{cite web |title=John B. Fairbanks |url=https://www.lib.utah.edu/collections/utah-artists/UAP-John-Fairbanks.php |website=J. Willard Marriott Library |publisher=The University of Utah |accessdate=May 31, 2019}}</ref><ref name="light">{{cite news |last1=Florence, Jr. |first1=Giles H. |title=Harvesting the Light: The 1890 Paris Art Mission |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1988/10/harvesting-the-light-the-1890-paris-art-mission?lang=eng |accessdate=May 31, 2019 |work=Ensign |publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |date=October 1988}}</ref> These temple murals still exist.<ref name="pioneers">{{cite news |last1=Rosner |first1=Jannalee |title=9 Incredible Pioneers You've Never Heard of |url=http://www.ldsliving.com/9-Incredible-Pioneers-You-ve-Never-Heard-of/s/82686 |accessdate=June 7, 2019 |work=LDS Living |publisher=Deseret Book Company}}</ref>
===Career=== thumb|275px|''Lake Nikaragua'' (sic, {{Circa|1901}}) After completing murals at the Salt Lake Temple, Fairbanks began teaching one of the first college art classes at Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University).<ref name="bradley" />{{rp|103}} He still received little public recognition despite having established a photographic studio and art gallery.<ref name="survey" /> Then, on May 8, 1898, his wife Lillie died from a fall downstairs. She had been carrying their baby son and may have sacrificed herself to save him. The boy, Avard, suffered no serious injuries and grew up to be a well-known sculptor.<ref name="thesis" /> After the death of his wife, Fairbanks moved his family to Ogden, Utah and became the first supervisor in Ogden public schools.<ref name="bradley" />{{rp|103}} In 1902, struggling to support his seven children, he accepted an offer of employment from Benjamin Cluff to make sketches and photographs on his archaeological expedition to Latin America. There, they intended to discover evidence for the Book of Mormon.<ref name="survey" /><ref name="eugene" />{{rp|1}} Fairbanks moved his family to Alberta, Canada to run a farm, but returned to Salt Lake City due to droughts and difficult winters.<ref name="eugene" />{{rp|1}} Back in Salt Lake City, Fairbanks resumed painting, giving private art lessons and running a small farm to provide for his family.<ref name="eugene" />{{rp|1}} Fairbanks spent time in New York City where he made copies of art pieces from the Metropolitan Museum to sell. Avard Fairbanks joined his father to copy pieces soon after.<ref name="eugene" />{{rp|1}} Fairbanks helped his son cultivate his work and develop his technique, hoping Avard would be able to achieve a level of success that he had not.<ref name="thesis" />{{rp|141}} They returned to Salt Lake City after commissions and finances dwindled.<ref name="eugene" />{{rp|2}} In 1914, Fairbanks accompanied Avard to Paris where he was to study at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts. Here, Fairbanks studied privately.<ref name="thesis" />{{rp|146}} thumb|John B Fairbanks with son, Avard Tennyson Fairbanks, 1911, in New York City while both were studying art During the late 1910s, Fairbanks traveled to Zion National Park to paint. During this time, he created more artworks in this area than any other artist. Additionally, he was the first artist to live and paint in Zion National Park.<ref name="canyon" />{{rp|50}} In 1917, while painting there, he met his second wife, Florence Gifford, who was almost forty years his junior.<ref name="byu" /> They married on September 21, 1917, in Salt Lake City and eventually had five more children.<ref name="byu" /> Neither his art nor his teaching was financially successful, so he supplemented his income by running a photography studio with his oldest son, John Leo Fairbanks.<ref name="thesis" />{{rp|125–127}}<ref name="eugene">{{cite book |last1=Fairbanks |first1=Eugene F. |title=The Sculptor's Testimony in Bronze and Stone: The Sacred Sculpture of Avard T. Fairbanks |date=1972 |publisher=Publisher's Press |location=Salt Lake City, Utah}}</ref>{{rp|1}} He was one of the founding members of the Utah Art Institute (now the Utah Division of Arts and Museums).<ref name="paris">{{cite journal |last1=Cope |first1=Rachel |title="With God's Assistance I Will Someday Be an Artist": John B. Fairbanks's Account of the Paris Art Mission |journal=BYU Studies Quarterly |date=2011 |volume=50 |issue=3 |url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4341&context=byusq |accessdate=June 4, 2019}}</ref>{{rp|144}} In 1933, Fairbanks and his sons created the Mormon display to tell the story of Mormonism through art for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Avard sculpted, J. Leo created stained glass, and Fairbanks painted.<ref name="thesis" />{{rp|148–149}} Although he painted until the very last days of his life, he never achieved wide recognition.<ref name="thesis" />{{rp|127, 149}} Fairbanks died on June 15, 1940, at the age of 84 from recurring kidney stones.<ref name="thesis" />{{rp|149}}<ref name="byu" />
==Style== Fairbanks received art training in Paris, yet his landscape paintings have a distinct Utah style.<ref name="survey" /> He used "soft and rustic naturalistic impressionism" in his paintings.<ref name="canyon" />{{rp|49}}
==Children== Fairbanks had eleven children with Lillie Huish among whom were John Leo Fairbanks (painter and sculptor), Ortho Lane Fairbanks (sculptor) and Avard Tennyson Fairbanks (sculptor). With Florence Gifford, he had an additional five children.<ref name="paris" />{{rp|144}}
== References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category|John Fairbanks}} *[https://familysearch.org/photos/images/5292038?p=185329 Portrait of his mother] @ FamilySearch *[http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv21664 NWDA]: Inventory of the John B. Fairbanks papers. *[https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/search/collection/MMD/mode/all/field/creato/searchterm/john%20fairbanks John B. Fairbanks diaries] from at [https://sites.lib.byu.edu/sc/ L. Tom Perry Special Collections], Brigham Young University *{{Find a Grave|30283630}}
{{Avard Fairbanks|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairbanks, John B.}} Category:1855 births Category:1940 deaths Category:People from Payson, Utah Category:19th-century Mormon missionaries Category:American Latter Day Saint artists Category:Artists from Utah Category:American Mormon missionaries in the United States Category:Latter Day Saints from Utah Category:American expatriates in France John