Born in Marysville, California, his art studies began at the School of Design in San Francisco in the mid-1880s followed by study in Paris at Académie Julian under Laurens, Berg, and Benjamin-Constant. While in Paris, he married May Elizabeth MacLeod in 1896. Upon returning to California, the couple settled in San Francisco where he was professor of drawing and painting at the Mark Hopkins Institute until 1899 and then taught in the public schools in Monterey for several years. In San Francisco Fonda maintained a large studio in his home at 3011 Sacramento Street where he taught privately. His oil painting, House of the Four Winds, was bought by President McKinley. Painting mainly during sunrise and sunset hours, Fonda produced many luminous coastal scenes, landscapes, and views of the Monterey Peninsula which were exhibited in the California State Fair (1902), Del Monte Art Gallery (1907-12), Golden Gate Park Museum (1915-1916), Bohemian Club and San Francisco Art Ass'n annuals. View profile at AskArt.com