Frederick William MacMonnies

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MacMonnies, Frederick (1863–1937), American sculptor, active for much of his career in Paris. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he became Saint-Gaudens's studio assistant in 1880 and in 1884 went to Paris to study at the École des Beaux-Arts. For most of the period up to the outbreak of the First World War he remained based in Paris, but he sent work back to the USA and became one of the leading American sculptors of public monuments in his generation. His most notable works include a statue of Shakespeare (1895) and a set of bronze doors representing the Art of Printing (c. 1898) for the Library of Congress in Washington, and the fountain figures Truth and Inspiration (1913) for the New York Public Library. He worked in a traditional style but sometimes caused controversy because of the alleged indecency of his nudes. In 1915 MacMonnies returned to the USA, where he took up portrait painting. This increasingly occupied his time, but as a painter he is regarded as ‘competent but unoriginal’ ( Mathew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art, 1979). His most important later work is the monument commemorating the Battle of the Marne, erected near Meaux in France in 1926. He was made a chevalier of the Legion of Honour by his second country in 1896 and a commander of the order in 1933. By this time the ‘bright young sculptor of the 1890s’ had become ‘the quintessential academic, and the modern movements of the early 20th century took place without his notice’ (Baigell).

MacMonnies, Frederick (b New York, 28 Sept. 1863; d New York, 22 Mar. 1937). American sculptor, a pupil of Saint-Gaudens. From 1884 to the outbreak of the First World War he worked mainly in Paris, but he sent work back to the USA and became one of the leading American sculptors of public monuments in his generation. His most notable works include a statue of Shakespeare (1895) and a set of bronze doors representing the Art of Printing (c.1898) for the Library of Congress in Washington, and the fountain figures Truth and Inspiration (1913) for the New York Public Library. He worked in a traditional style but sometimes caused controversy because of the alleged indecency of his nudes. After he returned to the USA in 1915 he took up portrait painting. By the end of his career the ‘bright young sculptor of the 1890s’ had become ‘the quintessential academic, and the modern movements of the early 20th century took place without his notice’ ( Matthew Baigell, Dictionary of American Art, 1979).

Frederick William MacMonnies , 1863–1937, American sculptor and painter, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., studied with Augustus Saint-Gaudens and with Falguière in Paris. His fountain for the Court of Honor at the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, brought him fame. Among his numerous other works are a statue of Nathan Hale (City Hall Park, New York City); reliefs on the central bronze doors and the Shakespeare statue (Library of Congress); the army and navy groups for the Brooklyn Arch (Prospect Park, Brooklyn, N.Y.); and the Pioneer Monument (Denver).