MACMONNIES, milk-nifin'iz, FREDERICK (180-) . An American sculptor. He was born in Brooklyn. September 20. 1863. His father was of Scotch descent and his mother a niece of the American painter Benjamin West. At the age of seventeen he entered the atelier of Augus tus Saint Gaudens in New York as an assistant, studying in the evening at the National Acad emy of Design and the Art Students' League. In 1884 he went to Europe, where, studying painting at Munich and sculpture at Paris, he entered the atelier of Falguiere. and after two years' study established an atelier of his own in Paris. His statue of Diana won honorable mention at the Salon of 1889. The statue of Nathan Hale, now in City Hall Park, New York, and that of James S. T. Stranaham in Prospect Park. Brooklyn, were exhibited in the Salon of 1891. Each of these works is successful, the clever manner in which the unavoidable realism of the Strana han statue was managed being especially admired by the French critics. In the Salon of 1892 Maemonnies exhibited the little fountain figure called "Pan of Rohallion." and the "Boy with a Heron." The most important of his works, and the one which has done most to secure his repu tation, was the colossal fountain in the Court of Honor at the Columbian Exhibition in Chi cago in 1893. .11is statue of a Bacchante, ex hibited in the Salon of 1S94, was bought for the Luxembourg Gallery. The attempt to place a replica of this statue, now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, in the court of the Boston Public Library excited much criticism.
The activity of Maemonnies has been very great. His best known works, besides the above, are: the statue of Sir Henry Vane, in the Boston Public Library; the two pediments of the Bow ery Savings Bank, in New York: the spandrels of the Washington Memorial Arch. in New York; and the Army and Navy groups for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. in Indianapolis. He did much work for the Congressional Library in Washington. including the bronze doors and a statue of Shakespeare. He also executed the decorations of the triumphal arch at the main entrance to Prospect Park, Brooklyn. and the Battle Monument at West Point. The two groups of athletes and horses at the southern entrance to Prospect Park are as fine examples of park sculpture in bronze as can be found. Since 1900, in which year Macmonnies returned to the United States, lie has devoted himself increas ingly to painting. Besides other honors. lie re ceived a medal at the World's Fair. Chicago, in 1893. Ile was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1398, and won a grand prize of honor at the Paris Exposition of 1900. De is above all a brilliant technician. His conceptions are always delicate and refined, his composition unique and original. Consult Greer, "Frederick Maemon nies," in Brush and Pencil (1902) .