When in 1884 Frederick MacMonnies arrived in Paris he was equipped as no American had ever been before. He was twenty-one years old, and had already spent five years in the studio of Saint Gaudens, besides learning to draw like a skilled painter. His progress was proportionate, and it has been his joy ever since to meet his European competitors upon their own field and to rival them in whatever they undertake. If there is nothing distinctively American in his art, it is sculpture of the highest degree of workmanship, an international coin that passes current wherever good art is known. [Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF D. C. FRENCH _French was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, on April 20, 1850_] [Illustration: THE HEWER, BY BARNARD _The plate on the pedestal says_, “_Erected in memory of William Parker Halliday, and presented to the city of Cairo, Ill., A. D. 1906, in token of his unswerving faith in her destiny._”] No one has ever worked quite so feverishly as did MacMonnies during those wonderful first years of his career, and no one has ever done so much in the time. The list is too long even to chronicle here, much less to comment upon. Beginning with the “Nathan Hale” and “Stranahan” of the Salon of 1891, the sculptor came insistently into national view in 1893 with his great Columbian fountain, the jewel of the Chicago Exposition. It was the opportunity of a lifetime, and the young sculptor rose serenely and triumphantly to the occasion. The memory of that exquisite twilight vision remains a delight to all who saw it. Orders followed in rapid sequence, and brought more successes,--the archaistic “Shakespeare” of the Congressional Library; the irresistible “Bacchante”; “Sir Henry Vane” of Boston; and the sculptor’s various contributions to Prospect Park, Brooklyn,--the Memorial Arch, with its gigantic army and navy groups, and its glorious Quadriga above, and the “Horse Tamers.” Upon the exhibition of these works at the Paris Exposition of 1900 MacMonnies decided that he wanted a rest, which in the case of one of his nervous temperament meant merely a change. He dropped his modeling tools absolutely, and for a number of years gave himself up to the joys of painting. All sculptors dream of this; but he could really do it. His work on canvas is no less masterly than his sculpture. Of late he has returned to his first love, and we look forward eagerly to the new products of his studio. THE BOLD ORIGINALITY OF BARNARD [Illustration: GEORGE GREY BARNARD]