Studio: international art (38.1906)

Frederick MacMonnies, Portrait Painter

FIG. 29. BOOK COVER

BY BERTHE L. GOFF
(CAMDEN SCHOOL, ISLINGTON)

■this is the book-cover (Fig. 29) by Miss Goff, of
‘Camden School, Islington. This consists of green
■sharkskin, with silver mounts, set with carbuncles,
which make, at intervals, deep spots of crimson,
agreeably contrasting with the softer tones of the
..green stain and of the dull finish of the metal.

Aymer Vallance.

RE DERICK MACMONNIES,
PORTRAIT PAINTER. BY
EDITH PETTIT.

Two or three years ago anyone visiting Mr.
MacMonnies’ studio would have found himself in
-a huge, dusty, barn-like workshop, filled with all
the unsightly paraphernalia of a sculptor. There
ihe would have seen, piled high on the worn, uneven
floor, and ranged closely on dusty shelves, the
models of Mr. MacMonnies’ works—in one corner
the triumphal car of Columbia which dominated
'the Court of Honour at the Chicago Fair; in
-another, the quadriga and groups which now
beautify the entrance to Prospect Park, Brooklyn;
.and, all about, nymphs and goddesses, Pans and
fauns, the amazing product of twenty years’ labour.
The work of the moment, the clay models, the
visitor would have found concealed under dank,

: shapeless masses of wet, grey rags. But to-day,
what a change ! Spacious Renaissance tapestries
■cover the grey walls; soft Oriental carpets cover
ithe polished floor; furniture of rare design abounds ;

and in the midst of the rich colour and
fastidious forms are Mr. MacMonnies’
new triumphs in the struggle of art—•
great, striking paintings, whose variety
and range of colour complete the
contrast.

Is this contrast significant of a
revolution in Mr. MacMonnies’ aims,
a metamorphosis of his artistic charac-
ter? The question has, of course,
naturally arisen and been put to the
artist with persistence. And since
capriciousness in the use of great
talents is not satisfactory to contem-
plate, it is perhaps time now to offer a
reply. The interested spectator might
not unnaturally feel disappointed in his
desire for a reasonable perfection, if a
sculptor, to whom France and America
had given their highest honours, should
turn painter from the mere spirit of
adventure. But though Mr. Mac-
Monnies has changed his medium of
expression, his fundamental artistic qualities
remain unchanged. A steady desire for a faithful
rendering of nature, an unswerving love of reality
and hatred of exaggeration and falsifying—these
are qualities of his painting and sculpture alike.
Inexhaustible vigour and nervous force, moreover,
is shown in all his work—an eagerness and deter-
mination to try a fall with every problem—while
his skilful drawing and his dexterity are as much
qualities of one art as of the other.

After all, Mr. MacMonnies’ first painted portraits
were not wholly1 efforts along a new line. Much
of his work had always been portraiture, often
portrait-statues, like the General Woodward or the
Stranahan, and always faithful likenesses of the
model before him, whether posed for a Columbia,
a Bacchante, or a Sir Harry Vane. In these
sculptured portraits his aim has always been to
reproduce the essence of the object before him,
so that it plainly differs from every other object
of the kind in the universe; so that it is itself un-
changeable ; in his own humorous phrase, “ so that
the portrait is more like the sitter than the sitter
is like himself.” It is an aim that has required a
loving, study of detail, a patient and amused obser-
vation of trifles. And, to repeat, in this minute
study and truth to essential fact the paintings do
not differ from the sculptures.

This unity of Mr. MacMonnies’ work in ils re-
production of the beauty of things certa’n and
existent was shown strikingly, amazingly, all within

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