by the oars of eight women of great beauty representing the Arts and Industries. The work had style, and it was also imposing in its massed effect. MacMonnies was only twenty-seven years old when this commission was given to him in 1891. He got it largely through the influence of his instructor, Augustus Saint Gaudens. All the summer of 1893 people were asking about the young sculptor. They found that he was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1863, of Scottish parentage. He came by an art inheritance from one of his parents at least,—his mother, Juliana Eudora West, a niece of the famous early American painter, Benjamin West.

Frederick MacMonnies had to leave school when a mere boy and earn his living as clerk in a jewelry store. He found time to study there, and when he was sixteen years old he attracted the notice of Saint Gaudens, who took him into his studio as an apprentice. That was the beginning of MacMonnies’ fame. He could scarcely realize at that age what a few years’ training under Saint Gaudens would mean. He worked hard in the studio and in the classes of the Academy of Design and Art Students’ League; so that when in 1884 he was able to go abroad he had a ground knowledge of modeling that fitted him to make the most of his study in foreign schools. He had been in the fullest sense “put in right” by Saint Gaudens. Through all the years of his study he had the advantage of close, familiar association with the greatest artists of this country and some of those abroad. MacMonnies went at once to Paris and joined the School of Fine Arts, where he made friends, and his progress was rapid. Back and forth he went during the next few years, from Paris to New York, according as his means and his plans of work required.

He got his first commission in 1889,—an order for three life-sized angel figures in bronze for Saint Paul’s Church, New York City. This brought him commendation, and, with the help of the great Saint Gaudens, other commissions were placed in his hands, notably the Nathan Hale statue, which stands in City Hall Park, New York City, and the portrait statue of James S. T. Stranahan of Brooklyn. These works preceded the Columbian Fountain, and since MacMonnies’ name has come to be known they are counted among his most admired creations.

In 1894 the famous Bacchante appeared,—the dancing, laughing girl that attracted so much public comment for a time.

Mr. MacMonnies is known by many figures and compositions in public places, notably the groups in bronze of the Army and the Navy on the Brooklyn Memorial Arch at the entrance to Prospect Park.

PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 1. No. 36 SERIAL No. 36
COPYRIGHT 1913, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.