Utahn John Septimus”” Jack”” Sears studied with J. T. Harwood in Salt Lake City, and in San Francisco with William Keith and Arthur Mathews. In about 1897, he went on to New York with his friend and fellow art student Mahonri Young for classes with William Merritt Chase and others at the Art Students League, and later with the great Robert Henri. He worked in New York as a free-lance artist and cartoonist until about 1919, when he returned to Utah teach at the University of Utah, remaining there until 1943. Sears is best known as a clever commercial illustrator and cartoonist, and his insightful sketches and cartoons often commented on the people and times of his life in New York in the early part of the century. The artist estimated that he had completed some 25,000 drawings and sketches during his lengthy career.

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