Born in Brooklyn, the sculptor and painter Frederick William MacMonnies studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design in New York as well as with the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907). He continued his training at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris with Jean-Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900). MacMonnies was one of many American artists attracted to Giverny, France, by the picturesque scenery and the presence of Claude Monet (1840-1926).

 

With studios in New York and Giverny, MacMonnies exhibited widely, winning numerous awards, and executed many important sculpture commissions, including monumental figural groups for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Although he is best known as a sculptor, he also exhibited several landscapes of Giverny, and his portraits were shown at The Art Institute of Chicago in 1905, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1906, and the National Academy of Design in 1938