Robert McConnell was born in Chicago, and raised in Necadah, Wisconsin, where his father was a member of the state legislature. As a young man he was working as a lumberjack, when a chance encounter with a French drawing teacher inspired his interest in art. After moving to Chicago, he began his artistic education at the Young Men's Christian Association, working as an illustrator. In New York, he continued to support himself through commerical illustration, while studying with William Merritt Chase. Sometime in his teens, McConnell changed his name to MacCameron.
MacCameron traveled to London in 1888, where he found employment with a children's publication entitled "The Boys' Own."ÿ He enrolled in the Parisian atelier of Jean-Leon Gerome in late 1891, and also worked with Raphael Collin and James McNeill Whistler during his French residence. In 1902, MacCameron married Louise van Voorhis. His first public recognition occurred in 1904, when he was awarded an honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Francais. Because of his own early hardships, MacCameron claimed a sympathy with the destitute. He used a realistic style to emphasize the squalor and misery of his Parisian lowerclass subjects.
In 1912, after many years of European residence, MacCameron returned to New York, establishing a successful career as a society portraitist. Ironically, the artist who had claimed the underclasses as his own, became especially popular with members of the elite Four Hundred. President McKinley, President Howard Taft, the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and the Duke and Dutchess of Rutland were among his more prominent sitters. MacCameron died suddenly of heart disease.
