New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-05-15

hostages given to fortune, and this is
peculiarly true In the case Of sculp-
tor. In making public monuments he
builds up for himself a public char
acter. He cannot escape the sadmoni
tions of his own touchstones. Of all
the reflections invited by Mr.. Mac
Monies In his new fountain before
the City Hall, there are none more
immediate, more suggestive,sthan those
which take account Of his earlier pro-
auctions. One Of these, the Nathan
Hale" stands near by. 1t is dated 1890
The two statues taken together set one
thinking Of the artists whole career.
When, In his seventeenth wear, he
was apprenticed to the late Augustus
Saint-Gaudens, he brought to the serv-
Ice Of his master two precious traits
manual dexterity, an Unborn gift for
modelling, and a temperament SO per-
sonal, so strong, that whatever he did
was sure to DO vitalized. He had
extraordinary abilities when he first
went abroad, intending to study in
Paris, but after brief period there
he entered the studio of Widmann. in
Munich. He presently returned from
Europe and renewed his alliance with
Saint-Gaudens. After year of that
Ee went back to Paris and worked
under Falguiere in the Ecole des
beaux Arts. Both in 1887 and in 1883
he won by reclamation the Premier
Prix d'Atelier. Probably, if a for
eigner could have had it, he would
have been given tho Prix de Rome.
Why? For answer look at the Nathan
Hale" In conception it has the simple
dignity that only a mature talent
could have expressed. In Workmanship
it IS mastery.
In later designs MacMonnies steadily
upheld the high standard erected in
this beautiful bronze. He conquered
a prosaic problem of type and costume
in the "Stranahan," over in Brooklyn.
and from this he could turn with per
tect ease to pure grace. There never
was more brilliant tour dc force than
his celebrated fountain, with its blithe
medley of figures, in the Court Of
Honor at the Chicago Fair, thirty
years ago. In his PAN of Rohallion"
and in his "Boy and Heron" he struck
again, successfully and charminp,v.
the note of youth and discreet pic
turesqueness. In the "Bacchante" that
Boston didn't like, and that we are so
fortunate as to have in the Metropoli
Ian Museum, he modelled one of the
cleverest, most joyous pieces in
modern sculpture. He has done. of
course, many other things. Among
them is the statue Of Sir Harry Vane,
the seventeenth century Governor of
massachusetts, in the Congressional
Library, work which is of debonair
romanticism all compact. All these
sculptures consistently point to the
came resources, to ideas imaginatively
felt and expressed, to great technical
skill, and to style which IL not rich
ly distinctive is sufficiently personal.
recalling neither Saint Gaudens nor
falgulere These, then, are the ele-
ments naturally to be looked for in
the Civic Virtue" Only the technique
is there.
',
1t is present in measure unoues-
tlonably leaving MacMonnies where j,
FOUND him, one Of the virtuosi in the
plastic art Of his time. After the thin.
buttery modelling which has followe ed
in so many quarters upon the craze 70,
Robins melting modulations it is posi-.
lively refreshing to see a statue a.
firmly executed as this one, statue
based so solidly on knowledge. The
marble spells authoritative sleight Of
hand It it spells nothing else. The de-.