Frederick MacMonnies was a major figure in American Art. Of course, he was primarily a sculptor, but especially at the turn of the century he was also a fascinating painter. Even in his glyptic work, MacMonnies is surely the most painterly of all American sculptors. But unlike his two contemporaries, Augustus Saint Gaudens and Daniel Chester French, who with him formed a great trio of late nineteenth century sculptors, and about whose careers numerous book-length studies exist, MacMonnies achievements have been treated posthumously only in relatively short articles. Such attention has been devoted primarily to individual sculptures such as the battle monuments at Princeton and the Marne, and especially his two most controversial, even scandalous statues, Bacchante and Civic Virtue. I cannot, in fact, recall any other American Artist of his status who has not - until no - enjoyed a full monographic examination and assessment.
Mary Smart has here ably rectified that lacuna. Devoted as she has been to this subject for decades, and already an acknowledged and published authority on the artistic career of Fredericks wife, Mary Fairchild MacMonnies (later, Low), Smart documents Frederick MacMonnies achievements while setting an often confusing record straight concerning his life. She brings into focus the sculptures interaction, and his sometime leadership, within the international artistic community.
Price: $77.50
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