Dr Avard Fairbanks PhD
(1897-1987)

Died aged c. 90

Avard Tennyson Fairbanks (March 2, 1897 – January 1, 1987) was a 20th-century American sculptor. Over his eighty-year career, he sculpted over 100 public monuments and hundreds of artworks. Fairbanks is known for his religious-themed commissions for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) including the Three Witnesses, Tragedy of Winter Quarters, and several Angel Moroni sculptures on LDS temple spires. Additionally, Fairbanks sculpted over a dozen Abraham Lincoln-themed sculptures and busts among which the most well-known reside in the U.S. Supreme Court Building and Ford's Theatre Museum. From a young age, Fairbanks was a talented artist. At 13 years old, he attended the Art Students League of New York on scholarship and his work was displayed at the National Academy of Design a year later. In 1913, he studied abroad in Paris at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts where he was the youngest student admitted to the French salons. He taught sculpture at several universities and attended medical school at the University of Michigan where he earned a doctorate in anatomical studies in order to better represent the human body in his art.

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Commemorated on 1 plaque

Bicentennial Washington by Avard T. Fairbanks, PH.D. (1897-1987) This bust of George Washington was given by the Board of Trustees of the George Washington University in Washington D.C., to the board of Sulgrave Manor in the spirit of the special relationship between the people of Britain and America. Created for the bicentennial of the United States in 1976, this striking likeness has won international acclaim for portraying the spirit of indomitable will of the "Father of his Country". The first bronze casting was installed at the George Washington University in 1980. Bicentennial Washington is also displayed at George Washington's Virginia residence, Mount Vernon.

Sulgrave Manor, Sulgrave, United Kingdom where they sculptor of Bicentennial Washington