Biography
Frederick William MacMonnies (September 28, 1863 – March 22, 1937) was an expatriate American sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school, as successful and lauded in France as he was in the United States. He was also a highly accomplished painter and portraitist. He was born in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn, New York and died in New York City.
In 1880 MacMonnies apprenticed under Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and was soon promoted to studio assistant. It was there that he met architect Stanford White, who would advocate for him throughout his early career. MacMonnies studied at the National Academy of Design and The Art Students League of New York.
In 1884 MacMonnies traveled to Paris to study sculpture at the École des Beaux-Arts, twice winning the highest award given to foreign students. In 1888 he opened a studio in Paris and began to create some of his most famous sculptures, which he submitted annually to the Paris Salon. In his atelier, he mentored such notable artists as Janet Scudder and Mary Foote. He was taught at the Académie Vitti in 1904.
In 1888 Stanford White recommended MacMonnies for two major commissions, a decorative Pan fountain sculpture for Rohallion, the New Jersey mansion of banker Edward Adams, and a work for ambassador Joseph H. Choate, at Naumkeag, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
In 1889 an Honorable Mention at the Paris Salon for his Diana led to further and more public American commissions, including spandrel reliefs for Stanford White’s permanent Washington Arch, New York.
In 1891, he designed the statue of James S. T. Stranahan in Brooklyn. That same year, he was awarded the commission for the Columbian Fountain, the centerpiece of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago: the sculpture of Columbia in her Grand Barge of State, in the vast central fountain of the Court of Honor, was an iconic figure at the heart of the American Beaux-Arts movement. This large decorative fountain piece became a focal point at the Exposition and established MacMonnies as one of the important sculptors of the time.
MacMonnies also created the 8′ tall statue for the Nathan Hale Memorial, erected in 1893 in New York City. It now stands near where historians believe American Revolutionary War hero Nathan Hale was executed by hanging. Numerous copies exist, including at The Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Art Museum at Princeton University, the National Gallery of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, Orlando Museum of Art, and the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College.
Until the outbreak of World War I, when he was forced to leave Paris, MacMonnies travelled annually to the United States to see dealers and patrons, returning to Paris to work on his commissions. His long-term residence was at Giverny.
In 1894, Stanford White brought another prestigious commission, for three bronze groups for the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza. He devoted eight years to these complex figure groups.
MacMonnies also continued to paint portraits, and his 1904 full length painting of his student Mabel Conkling was described by the Philadelphia Inquirer to be his “finest… yet”. MacMonnies was commissioned to create a work celebrating the Old West, depicting Kit Carson, begun in 1906 and unveiled in 1911. It marks the end of the Smoky Hill Trail used by gold prospectors en route to Colorado.
Commissioned in 1908, he sculpted the Princeton Battle Monument, a collaboration with architects Carrere & Hastings. Commemorating the first major colonial victory in the Revolutionary War, it features a figure group on a heroic scale. It is an allegorical depiction of the struggle, surmounted by an equestrian relief of Washington.
Returning to New York after 1915, he completed a colossal group, Civic Virtue, a fountain for New York City Hall. It was the object of criticism and threats of censorship. The statue was moved in 1941 to Queens Borough Hall and then to Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
In 1917, MacMonnies was commissioned create a memorial sculpture for the First Battle of the Marne, to reciprocate the generosity of France in giving the United States the Statue of Liberty. MacMonnies’ work, La Liberté éplorée (“The Tearful Liberty”), located in Meaux, France, is over seven stories tall, at 22 metres (72 ft). The monument was erected by American architect Thomas Hastings and completed in 1932. At the time of its dedication, it was the world’s largest stone monument. In 2011, the Musée de la Grande Guerre du pays de Meaux opened next to the monument. The World War I Memorial in Atlantic City, New Jersey, includes a 9-foot (2.7 m) bronze version of the statue.
Selected to sculpt the fourth issue of the long running Society of Medalists in 1931, MacMonnies chose to celebrate Charles Lindbergh’s solo Trans-Atlantic flight of 1927. The powerful bust of Lindbergh on the obverse, combined with the reverse’s dramatic allegorical depiction of a lone eagle battling across the sea, mark this issue as one of the more popular of the series.
MacMonnies was highly successful and the recipient of numerous awards. At the Paris Salon, he was awarded the first Gold Medal ever given to an American sculptor. We was elected to the rank of Chevalier in the French Légion d’honneur in 1896, and awarded Grand Prize at the Paris Exposition of 1900. He also received recognition as a painter, including a 1901 honorable mention at the Paris Salon for his first entry. He was an early member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and won a silver medal in the art competition at the 1932 Summer Olympics.
Nationality:
American
Dates:
September 28, 1863 – March 22, 1937
Occupation:
Sculptor, Painter
Schools attended:
Art Students League, National Academy of Design, École des Beaux-Arts, Académie Vitti
Taught at:
Student of:
Teacher of:
Janet Scudder, Mary Foote