A Handsome Volume | Thomas E. Toone, Mahonri Young: His Life and Art

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Mormons associate Mahonri Young with his LDS sculptures: Seagull Monument and This Is the Place Monument in Salt Lake City, and the Brigham Young statue in Washington, D.C. Yet Young was internationally known for his work, and his pictures and sculptures of the Native Americans of the southwest, men at work, and boxers are exquisite. 

Thomas E. Toone’s biography re volves around Young’s art. Toone, a professor of art at Utah State University, explains Young’s life based on his work. He describes Young’s struggle to receive commissions, his moves, his teaching experiences, and his family life, but the focus is always the painting or sculpting that Young was doing at the time. There are delightful stories such as Young’s ability to please the Young family and Utah’s congressional delegates by showing his grand father, Brigham Young, as a gentle father and stern governor. The text is light and a delightful read. 

Toone helps us understand more about Young by including brief biographies of other artists—friends and competitors. He shows how Young worked by explaining how he found models and developed his themes. He describes Young’s love for the Hopis, Apaches, and Navajos and the love those people had for him as he sketched his way through the southwest. 

As with most art books, the illustrations are essential. There are beautiful pictures of Young’s art, some in color and most in black and white. I enjoyed the various angles of some of the sculptures such as the backs of the model for Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Wilford Woodruff from This Is the Place Monument. The pictures of sculptures, such as the Gossipers, capture the three-dimensional aspects of the works. There are also photographs of Young and his family that illustrate the artist’s personality. 

As a historian, I would have liked more analysis of the people and events surrounding Young’s work. For example, how did Young convince Mormon church leaders to construct the Seagull Monument? Why did the Utah Pioneer Trails and Landmarks Association in sist on a competition for This Is the Place Monument? What were the politics in teaching and working in New York and Paris? 

But then I realize that there are many types of biographies. While Toone’s book is not a complete study of all aspects of Young’s life, it does give a clear picture of his art, exactly what Toone set out to do. It is a handsome volume that will liven up any coffee table.

Mahonri Young: His Life and Art. By Thomas E. Toone (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997).