[Photo Credit: Frederick MacMonnies, Bain News Service, publisher, c. 1910-1915, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, LC-DIG-ggbain-20205]
The U.S. expat sculptor Frederick William Macmonnies—who lived in Paris from 1884-1915—would certainly have been known to Julia by reputation. When he arrived there in 1884, he took drawing classes at the Academie Colarossi, where Julia later studied. Macmonnies gained admission to the École des Beaux-Arts in 1886, and—though he departed in 1888 without graduating—won two distinguished prizes during his tenure.
When Julia and her roommate Sara Whitney met Macmonnies in the fall of 1897, he had become famous, through such works as Bacchante and Infant Faun and Nathan Hale. Julia thought him bombastic, writing to her cousins: “The only other visit of interest was one with Sara Whitney to MacMonnies – she was introduced by the Architect who is building the little Palais de Champs Elysée [Charles Girault, 1852-1892, who designed the Petit Palais for the 1900 Exposition]. . . . [Macmonnies] has a large old Atelier on the boulevard [Garibaldi], a miserable sort of quarter, – I won’t say anything of him, for probably you know him. . . . He is interesting as a talker, though poor Michel Angelo came out a sufferer, and [Macmonnies] advised Sara to do no modeling, nothing but drawing for the next three years – which I am sure she will not follow.”
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