Born in Vienna, noted sculptor and painter Emil Fuchs studied the Academy of Fine Arts there, with further study at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin where he trained as a sculptor and medalist. Moving to London in 1897, he turned toward painting and was mentored by John Singer Sargent. He taught at the Royal Academy of Arts there, as well as in Paris, Munich Vienna, Berlin, and Rome. Fuchs had visited the United States as early as 1905, and executed a number of portrait commissions there in the ensuing years. He moved to New York in 1915, becoming an American citizen in 1924. Facing the probability of a long and painful death, from incurable cancer, Fuchs took his life at the Hotel des Artistes in New York.