Born 11 August 1858, in New Haven (Connecticut); died 1946, in Bronxville (New York).

Painter, miniaturist. Figures, nudes, portraits, scenes with figures, interiors with figures, landscapes, gardens, flowers. Murals.
Mary Louise Fairchild was a student at the School of Fine Art in St Louis. There she was awarded a bursary, which enabled her to set up for three years, from 1885, in Paris. The École des Beaux-Arts not admitting women (it only did so in 1896), she enrolled at the Académie Julian as the pupil of Jules Lefebvre and William Bouguereau, and then, in 1888, for the course by Carolus Duran, specialising in portraits. From 1888 she rented a large studio in Montparnasse, and married the American sculptor Frederick MacMonnies. They associated with numerous artists, including Whistler and Isadora Duncan. From 1895 to 1908 she set up in Giverny, where in 1898 she acquired a large manor, Le Moutier, surrounded by terraced gardens, orchards and workshops, a site which was to become a veritable art centre for dozens of American artists. In 1908 she was divorced from Frederick MacMonnies, left France for good, married Will Hickok Low, an academic painter, and from then on devoted herself almost exclusively to portraiture.

It was essentially in the world of Le Moutier that Mary MacMonnies found the inspiration for her paintings. She lightened her palette, in keeping with Impressionism, creating multiple nudes in the sunshine, and intimate depictions of her daughters in the family garden. It was an idyllic world which she depicted in large format canvases, where the touch is systematically small and thickened, whereas her small format works are treated with a very diluted touch. This broad-brush method of working does not appear in the other part of her activity, the miniature, which properly shows great attention to detail and precision.

Mary MacMonnies took part in the Salon des Artistes Français from 1886 to 1907, being awarded a bronze medal in 1900, on the occasion of the Exposition Universelle. She featured in the World Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893, showing her only mural in the Women's Pavilion. This work was a commission divided into two parts, her own composition, The Primitive Woman, matching the second, The Modern Woman, commissioned from Mary Cassatt. This work ensured her considerable fame in America. In France, she obtained awards and medals in Rouen, Marseilles and St-Brieuc. In the USA, she became an Associate of the National Academy in 1906.

Group Exhibitions

1992, Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France 1865-1915, Museum of American Art - Terra Foundation for the Arts, Giverny
2002, American Impressionism 1880-1915, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne
2006, Americans in Paris 1860-1900, National Gallery, London (also presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
2007, Giverny Impressionniste: une Colonie d'Artistes, 1885-1915, Musée d'Art Américain, Terra Foundation for American Art, Giverny

Solo Exhibitions

1988, Musée Alphonse-Georges Poulain, Vernon (with her husband)
2001, Mary and Frederick MacMonnies, a studio in Giverny, Museum of American Art, Giverny (exhibition exploring the respective evolution of the two artists during their time in Giverny)

Museum and Gallery Holdings

Cambridge (Robinson College): Portrait of Mlle S. H. (Sara Tyson Hallowell) (1886, oil on canvas)
Chicago (Terra Foundation for American Art Collection): The Breeze (1895, oil on canvas); Dans la nursery (1897-1898, oil on canvas); C'est la fête à bébé (1897-1898, oil on canvas)
Rouen (MBA): Roses and Lilies (1897)
Vernon (Mus. Alphonse-Georges-Poulain): Norman woman in traditional costume, with her cat (exhibited 1904, miniature on ivory); Marthe Lucas, Betty and Marjorie (before 1904, oil on canvas); A Corner of the Park in Snow (The Artist's Garden at Giverny) (before 1904)