Frederick William MacMonnies Art
American, 1863-1937
A sculptor of classical figures, American-born Frederick MacMonnies had fame in the United States and Europe in the later half of the 19th century and early 20th century. He occasionally returned to America but lived most of his life as in expatriate in France. He was especially known for his lithe bronze figures, especially ones titled Diana. The classical names of these figures allowed him the appearance of propriety but gave him the opportunity to model svelte nudes.
Frederick MacMonnies was one of the first American sculptors to recognize the potential market of the middle class. He copyrighted his works and then contracted with foundries to mass produce some of his figures such as Diana in smaller sizes.
MacMonnies was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was a child prodigy at carving stone. At age 18, he worked in the studio of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and then persuaded him to become his assistant, keeping models damp and covered, running errands, and cleaning the studio. Evenings he studied at the Art Students League, Cooper Union, and the National Academy of Design.
In Saint-Gaudens' studio, he met many of the wealthy people who shared Saint-Gaudens Beaux-Arts based ideas that art and architecture should be unified in order to create public art in America equal to that of classical antiquity or Renaissance Europe. Among the men that MacMonnies met through Saint-Gaudens who later furthered his career were architects Stanford White and Charles McKim and John LaFarge, decorator of mansions of the wealthy including the Vanderbilts.
After four years of study and work in New York, MacMonnies left for Paris, opting for the more modernist techniques he could learn there over the more traditional sculpture teaching in Rome. One of his first teachers was Alexandre Falguiere, who had been an instructor of Saint-Gaudens and who injected a degree of contemporary realism into his classical figures. MacMonnies mingled with many upper class American expatriates and met his future wife, Mary Fairchild, a painter.
MacMonnies came home briefly to help Saint-Gaudens with a project and then gained admittance in Paris to the Ecole des Beaux Arts, where he did numerous classical figures inspired by the style of small bronzes of Renaissance Florence, Italy.
In 1889, he established his reputation with his sculpture of "Diana" at the Paris Salon. The execution of his nude sculpture was a challenge for a sculptor such as himself who strove for slim, well proportioned figures---the "aestheticizing of the nude". (Katz 12) In those days, most of the female models were poor peasants who were stocky with poor figures, distorted feet and often unbathed. However, MacMonnies found Marie Caira as the model for his Diana figures, and she, from a professional family of models, had the figure and social stature that met his criteria.
Although he chose to live in Paris, many of his public and private sculpture commissions in future years, with the help of Saint-Gaudens and also architect, Stanford White, were in the United States.to
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Artist: Frederick William MacMonnies
Model Study for Truth Sculpture at NY Public Library of Seated Man
By Frederick William MacMonnies
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frederick William MacMonnies (American, 1863-1937)
Model Study for Truth, c. 1910-14
Painted plaster
16.5 x 9.25 x 7.5 inches
For the 1920 sculpture for the New York Public Library
...
Category
1910s Frederick William MacMonnies Art
Materials
Plaster
"Marion Jones Farquhar" Frederick William Macmonnies, Tennis Olympian Portrait
By Frederick William MacMonnies
Located in New York, NY
Frederick William Macmonnies
Marion Jones Farquhar, 1905-11
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 inches
Provenance:
William Clerk
Private Collection, New York
Literature:
Mary Smart, A Flight with Fame: The Life and Art of Frederick MacMonnies, with a Catalogue Raisonne of Sculpture and a Checklist of Paintings by E. Adina Gordon, Madison, Connecticut, 1996, no. 90.
The work depicts Marion Jones Farquhar who, was an American tennis player who competed during the late 19th century and early 20th century. She won the singles titles at the 1899 and 1902 U.S championships and was the first American woman to medal at the Olympics placing Bronze in singles. Additionally, she was the artist's sister-in-law who often played and competed with MacMonnies in golf and tennis. MacMonnies would often study the movements of her form referenced in his sculpture. When MacMonnies won a doubles golf tournament he said "Marion dragged my dead weight thro' and won us the tournament, showing what great Generalship can do."
A sculptor of classical figures, American-born Frederick MacMonnies had fame in the United States and Europe in the later half of the 19th century and early 20th century. He occasionally returned to America but lived most of his life as in expatriate in France. He was especially known for his lithe bronze figures, especially ones titled Diana. The classical names of these figures allowed him the appearance of propriety but gave him the opportunity to model svelte nudes.
Frederick MacMonnies was one of the first American sculptors to recognize the potential market of the middle class. He copyrighted his works and then contracted with foundries to mass produce some of his figures such as Diana in smaller sizes.
MacMonnies was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was a child prodigy at carving stone. At age 18, he worked in the studio of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and then persuaded him to become his assistant, keeping models damp and covered, running errands, and cleaning the studio. Evenings he studied at the Art Students League, Cooper Union, and the National Academy of Design.
In Saint-Gaudens' studio, he met many of the wealthy people who shared Saint-Gaudens Beaux-Arts based ideas that art and architecture should be unified in order to create public art in America equal to that of classical antiquity or Renaissance Europe. Among the men that MacMonnies met through Saint-Gaudens who later furthered his career were architects Stanford White and Charles McKim...
Category
Early 1900s American Impressionist Frederick William MacMonnies Art
Materials
Canvas, Oil
Diana the Huntress, 1890 Classical Bronze Sculpture of Nude Woman
By Frederick William MacMonnies
Located in Beachwood, OH
Frederick William MacMonnies (American, 1863-1937)
Diana, 1890
Bronze with green verdigris patina
Signed and dated
Copyright 1894 with Jaboeuf & Rouard, Paris foundry mark
31 x 21 x 17 inches
A sculptor of classical figures, American-born Frederick MacMonnies...
Category
1890s Frederick William MacMonnies Art
Materials
Bronze
Patinated Bronze Statuette of William Shakespeare
By Frederick William MacMonnies
Located in New Orleans, LA
Frederick William MacMonnies
1863–1937 American
William Shakespeare
Signed "F. MacMonnies" and foundry-marked "E. Gruet Jeune, Fondeur, Paris"
Bronze
Frederick William MacMonnies...
Category
19th Century Academic Frederick William MacMonnies Art
Materials
Bronze
Les Jardin Du Giverny
By Frederick William MacMonnies
Located in Sheffield, MA
Frederick William MacMonnies
American, 1863-1937
Les Jardin Du Giverny
Oil on Canvas
21 by 25 in, w/ frame 27 ⅞ by 31 ⅞ in
A sculptor of classical figures, American-born Frederick ...
Category
Early 20th Century Expressionist Frederick William MacMonnies Art
Materials
Oil
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