The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-03-03

MacMonnies a favor and had in |
deed paid him the greatest compliment |
OF which he was capable. but poor |
Mac" was i'm distress. for on compar
ing the remodeled Diana with photo
graph OF his masters statue OF the
same character he found he had uncon-
sciously made a practical replica OF the
other. MacMonnies. though he had
deep reverence for his master, fortu-
nately had also some reverence for his
own genius and did not rest until he
had restored his statue TO its original
pose He worked hard for many hours.
as he had already worked for months.
4 ana she won him honorable mention
at the salon OF 1889.
The sculptor's first commission also
/ came 10 him that year. IL consisted OF
| three life size angels i'm bronze for ST.
Pauls church. New York. and the stat
| ue of Nathan Hale now standing in
J City Hall park. in the same city, on the
| traditional spot on which the patriot
| spy was executed.
There are stories OF a period OF Mac
/ Monies life in Paris when, through
1 absorption i'm his work and neglect of
| the ''loaVes and fishes" ne was on the
| verge of poverty. He finally needed the
monitions of prudence and contracted
for mechanical reductions in plaster OF
two OF his figures. These were TO be
! sold as pot boilers" They say it took
his last franc to pay for the reproduc-
/ tions, but the hungry sculptor did not
care. as he had orders i'm advance. He
placed the plaster casts on shelf in
his studio and went home for the night
In the morning he found the costly stat
! uettes in heaps on the floor, a cat hav-
ing tipped the shelf over and totally ru-
| ined his casts. IL is said that this mis-
| hap brought the usually light hearted
sculptor nearer than he had ever come
TO actual despair. for the loss of few
francs was then a serious matter 10
this man who since has had orders
| amounting to more than $500 900 in a
year.
After his Diana" came one Of the
daintiest conceptions that ever assumed
concrete shape in a sculptor's hands in
the fairylike Pan of Rohallion," which
was followed by other work various
and wonderful The range of this
sculptor's Imagination and the excel
lence OF his art the fecundity of his
brain to conceive and the cunning skill
OF his hands to form are shown in the
long list of his works the important
ones being more than twenty in num-
ber.
During the formative period OF his
art, while MacMonnies was studying,
he was also observing. He rarely rest
ed: he worked at a white heat almost
all the time. Some of his best work
came as an inspiration, some again only
after painful toll Like Crawford, he
has an inventive mind that would have
won him distinction in mechanics. He
has persistence and energy in a marked
degree. and these qualities combined
with his genius for surmounting obsta-
cles. have given him his success
They say in Paris that MacMonnies
was the first sculptor to find out what
10 do with the tall hat so persistently
worn by all great men of modern times
who have no regard for the contingency
of being done up in marble when they
are dead. What an awfully hideous
thing it really is only appears when at
| tempts are made to reproduce IL in
marble, and ii has been the despair of
sculptors for years. But MacMonnies
| fertile in expedient, deftly got around
the difficulty by having the subject he
was treating hold the hat careessly in
his hand in such a manner that II was
not in the least obtrusive for a high hat
This was done i'm his noble Stranahan
statue, which won him a gold medal
and was subsequently placed in Brook
D lyn's Prospect park. The figure itself
: is commanding and impressive, despite
the realism of modern costume. which
: is bravely and skillfuly handled. with
out the palliative even of a flowing
cloak or toga.
D There is a wide distance-not in art
; but in treatment-between the Strana-
> han statue and the festive "Bacchante,'
one being fully clothed and the Other
< not at ALL This "Bacchante" was con
\ sidered one OF MacMonnies best work!
I and won the instant appreciation OF th'
French connoisseurs. and while on exhi
q bition at the salon OF 1894 was bough
z by the French government for the Lux
embourg gallery. Such tribute few
4 American sculptors have received, anC
e vet the replica ordered for the court o
: Boston's Public library was rejected.
e This "Bacchante" Is now in the Met
: ropolitan Museum OF Art, New York
q where it is one OF the most admired
r of works I'm the nude. There is an i'm
IS innitable winsomeness in the little makes
o baby perched upon the arm OF the light
e lv poised m@nad. who holds a bunch .
II grapes so tantalizingly just out OF tn
Youngsters reach. and there is a dee
r. lesson TO be conveyed to those who Sc
q the figures through the artists eyes
e Both are the perfection OF grace-th
II perfection of art-and some have calle
& the group 'one of the consummate flow
@ ers OF modern sculpture" No objection
J. Is raised 10 Powers Greek Slave" We
l, Il is nude: but the difference betwee
d that masterpiece and the more recen
d work. the "Bacchante," Is that one
'e cold and inanimate. snow sculpture
le the other seemingly pulsing with life
IA The same may be said OF MacMonnie:
j" Venus and Adonis." boy With Her
N on" and Pan of Rohallion." all stud
,r les In the nude, yet enveloped In an al
10 mosphere of purity since nudity. as tn
Il artist views It, is purity.
p The work that brought MacMonnie
re into prominence I'm the United States
" for he was well known abroad befor
st his countrymen became acduainte
Is with him as the coming sculptor OF th