Emil Fuchs was born in Vienna on August 9, 1866. He received his initial arts education at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna where he studied under Edmund von Hellmer. From there he moved to Berlin to study at the Prussian Academy of Arts under Fritz Schaper and Anton von Werner. During a stay in Rome he won the German Prix de Rome in 1891.
While his focus was on sculpture he also began painting and became an accomplished portraitist. From 1897 to 1915 he lived in London where he regularly met with Lawrence Alma-Tadema and was mentored by John Singer Sargent. He exhibited works at the Royal Academy of Arts and even taught there. After receiving commssions from the British Royal family he became very fashionable among the aristocracy and high society and in 1909 he received the Royal Victorian Order.
Fuchs began going to the United States in 1905, primarily to paint portraits of wealthy socialites. In 1915 during World War I, "a wave of anti-German sentiment" swept England so, to escape it he moved permanently to New York, producing more works there and offering assistance with the war effort. He became a US citizen in 1924. He had surgery for cancer in 1928, and in anticipation of a death with great suffering he shot himself at the Hotel des Artistes in New York on 13 January 1929. His will created a foundation which put his art on view as a permanent exhibit, and for this he left $500,000 plus artworks to the public.
Sourced mainly from Wikipedia.