medallions, notably the scal, medal, and sculptured keystone for the Cataract Construction Company, Niagara [Page 617], a charming statuette of Cupid [Page 628], several memorial tablets for various public institutions, bust and basrelief portraits. These with the models for the central pair of bronze doors for the Congressional Library at Washington, and a figure of Shakespeare for the same place [Page 627], complete the list of finished work, and present unaided a tolerably accurate portrait of one endowed with youth and capacity who has found and made use of opportunity.

Pan of Rohallion.

When we consider that this almost enormous contribution of completed work has been given to the world in less than a decadesince 1888, in fact-it becomes little less than phenomenal. Naturally MacMonnies has in the past set himself a pace which, happily endowed though he be, no one could hope to keep up, and something of this haste has left its impress on certain of his conceptions, though rarely or never on his execution a fact which might be enlarged upon if the purpose of this paper was to any intent critical. There are already signs of moderation of this gait in his last completed work, the figure of Shakespeare above mentioned, where it is evident that perhaps for the first time a larger measure of reflection has wisely restrained the effervescent quality of execution heretofore predominant. Brought face to face with the problem of representing the one man who to all English-speaking people stands as he highest exponent of its poetic exp

sion, the task has appeared other than those previously encountered. The engraving in these pages serves to show in what degree he has acquitted himself of his difficult task. He has at least left the temptation to be theatrical, to which Roubillac in his figure for Garrick's tomb succumbed, on one side, and has avoided the sickly sentimental conceptions of certain contemporaneous sculptors on the other. It is impossible to adequately judge a work in the round from any representation on a plane surface, but MacMonnies's Shakespeare has the appearance of a thoughtful man, simple and dignified, dressed like a gentleman of the period at which he lived, standing firmly on extremely well-drawn

legs, and the head, while presenting a certain variance to the popularly conceived Shakespearian type, has points of resemblance in common with the bust at Stratford, which from critical examination MacMonnies believes to be a cast from nature, retouched in the parts which the cast would not give, the eyes and flexible portions of the face, by some sculptor of Shakespeare's time. For the bony portions of the head, therefore, MacMonnies has followed the bust, and for other portions the Droeshout portrait to which Jonson gave his approval in the well-known lines. In the absence of any more exact representation of the poet's appearance these documents, consulted from this point of view, constitute, when used as the sculptor has apparently used them, with intelligent discrimination, the best possible authority, and the whole work produces an impression of reality which is convincing. Altogether it is conceived on a much more humanistic and thoughtful plane than any preceding work, and may well mark, in the artistic growth of the young sculptor, the first step (which has taken him far) toward a graver, more soberly conceived sculpture than his youth and ardent delight in execution have allowed him heretofore to conceive. Mention must be made en passant of the work which, together with the execution of the Indianapolis Army and Navy groups, occupies the sculptor at this time. In his studio in the rue de Sèvres in Paris, where all his work has been executed, are being made the models for a bronze quadriga which on a colossal scale is to decorate the top of the Soldiers and Sailors' Memorial Arch in Brooklyn. This, together with a bronze figure of "Victory" [Page 618] for the battle monument at West Point, closes the long list of work accomplished and is of a character with which the young sculptor has abundantly proved himself able to cope. It is impossible even now, when in point of time MacMonnies is hardly more than on the threshold of his career, to refuse to one who has accomplished so much and has won such recognition at home and abroad the title of master, and yet it can be fancied that the sculptor would be the first to reject any such assumption.

The nervous force which is behind all the apparent exuberance of his work is not likely to sit down en route and placidly savor the fruits of early success. It is far more likely to serve as an incentive to put by each accomplished work and seek in fresh fields new problems; and with changing ideals, as years bring the burden which they always bring and the compensating depth of perception which is granted to serious minds, we can fairly look for works which both in the accrued surety of execution and the seriously considered conception will assure MacMonnies a place among the few great masters of the age. Leaving all that is problematic in such a forecast we can for work already accomplished regard MacMonnies as a most happy exponent of the happy conjunction of capacity, opportunity, and youth. Given his undenia ble gifts, granted the fervor of ambitious youth, he is yet fortunate to come upon the scene when our civil war has left great deeds to perpetuate, when the people of these States have relaxed their toil to look about them and seek to beautify their surroundings.

In so far as we have done anything of importance in the fine arts, we have followed the traditions which have governed every movement of like character in the past. With lands to reclaim and render habitable, with a form of government which if inspired was nevertheless experimental, it is small wonder that the rude forefathers of our country had little time and less thought to devote to æsthetic questions. "I would have you know, young man, that Boston is not Athens," was the form of encouragement which Trumbull is said to have received from his father when proposing to follow the career of an artist. When we finally halted for a moment about the time that we had completed our first century, our natural impulse was to add beauty to the comfort of our homes, and the architectural achievement of the subsequent period up to the present is notable. To the practical mind, undoubtedly, the objec tive character of this "mother of arts appealed, giving as it does a solid evidence in stone and brick of the effort made and the money spent. Sculpture