Born in Payson, Utah, John Fairbanks was a painter, muralist, copyist and art educator who traveled extensively from his native state of Utah to study in Europe, explore the Southwest, direct a major archaeological expedition to Mexico and homestead in Canada. As a painter he was known for his "glowing harvestscapes, a subject he knew well from his years of farming" (Dawdy, 84). He also did many scenes of Zion National Park, where he spent four summers, and from 1920, he painted frequently in Bryce Canyon.

His father, John Fairbanks, was a Mormon bishop and Indian agent, and young John began painting by copying chromolithographs. He was then given lessons by his friend John Hafen, landscape, portrait and ...