Frederick MacMonnies
(American, 1863-1937)
The French Chevalier,c. 1901
Oil on canvas
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Melvin S. Frank

An Interlude in Giverny: The French Chevalier by Frederick MacMonnies
October 24, 2000-February 25, 2001

Frederick MacMonnies is best known today as one of the leading figurative sculptors of the American Renaissance. Residing in France for much of his professional career, MacMonnies, along with his first wife, the painter Mary Fairchild MacMonnies, often visited the quaint town of Giverny, France, home to the reclusive Claude Monet and numerous American Impressionists in the final decade of the nineteenth century. By 1894 the town was the MacMonnies' favorite summer retreat, and in 1898 they moved permanently into an old priory in Giverny, christened the "MacMonastery" by friends. It was at this time, just as the new century dawned, that MacMonnies launched his career as a painter. Though he continued to produce sculpture, the artist happily painted portraits and occasionally submitted paintings to the annual Salons. The French Chevalier(1901), a monumental canvas recently acquired by the Palmer Museum of Art, is arguably one of the most important paintings of MacMonnies' career. This exhibition will examine The French Chevalierin the context of the artist's life and work at the turn of the century in Giverny and will include a selection of paintings and sculpture by MacMonnies, as well as works by Mary MacMonnies Low and the American artist and critic Will H. Low. An homage to Velázquez' Las Meninas, The French Chevalieris in many ways a summation of the artist's aesthetic concerns, as well as a delightful record of his domestic environment.

The exhibition will travel in an expanded version to the Musée d'Art Américain, Terra Foundation for the Arts, in Giverny in the spring of 2001. A scholarly catalogue with essays by Joyce Henri Robinson, associate curator, Palmer Museum of Art, Derrick Cartwright, director, Musée d'Art Américain, and E. Adina Gordon, independent scholar, will accompany the exhibition.

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