Bela Pratt

Sculptures

Bela Lyon Pratt (December 11, 1867 – May 18, 1917) was an American sculptor.

Pratt was born in Norwich, Connecticut to Sarah (Whittlesey) and George Pratt, a Yale-educated lawyer. His maternal grandfather, Oramel Whittlesey, was a pianoforte maker and founder in 1835 of the first music school in the country authorized to confer degrees to teach music, Music Vale Seminary. At 16, Pratt began studying at the Yale University School of Fine Arts, where his teachers included John Henry Niemeyer (1839-1932) and John Ferguson Weir (1841-1926).

After graduating from Yale, he enrolled at the Art Students League of New York where he took classes from William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), Kenyon Cox (1859-1919), Francis Edwin Elwell (1858-1922), and most important, Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907), who became his mentor. After a short stint in Saint-Gaudens' private studio, Pratt traveled to Paris, where he trained with sculptors Henri-Michel-Antoine Chapu (1833-1891) and Alexandre Falguière (1831-1900) at the École des Beaux-Arts.

In 1892, he returned to the United States to create two large sculptural groups representing The Genius of Navigation for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He also produced sculptures for the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo in 1901. In 1893, he began a 25-year career as an influential teacher of modeling in the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During this time, Pratt sculpted a series of busts of Boston's intellectual community, including Episcopal priest Phillips Brooks (1899, Brooks House, Harvard University), Colonel Henry Lee (1902, Memorial Hall, Harvard University), and Boston Symphony Orchestra founder Henry Lee Higginson (1909, Symphony Hall, Boston). He became an associate of the National Academy in 1900. (1)

When Saint-Gaudens' uncompleted group for the entrance to the Boston Public Library was rejected, Pratt was awarded a commission for personifications of Art and Science. Pratt continued Saint-Gaudens' influence in coin design after 1907. His gold Indian Head half ($5) and quarter ($2.50) eagles are known as the "Pratt coins" and feature an unusual intaglio Indian head, the U.S. mint's only recessed design in circulation. A retrospective exhibition of 125 of his sculptures was held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in the spring of 1918.

Selected works

* 1892 The Genius of Navigation - World's Columbian Exposition
* 1893 Clara and Lizzie, Daughters of Frederick and Elizabeth Shattuck (plaque) - National Gallery of Art
* 1895 "Literature, Science, Art" (Spandrel figures) Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
* 1896 The Four Seasons (plaques) - 2nd floor pavilions, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress
* 1897 Dr. Henry Augustus Coit - St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire
* 1906 Young Soldier - St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire
* 1907 Andersonville Boy - State Capitol Grounds, Hartford, Connecticut
* xxxx Nathaniel Hawthorne - Salem, Massachusetts
* 1910? Science, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts
* 1913 Whaleman's Monument - New Bedford, Massachusetts
* 1913 Edward Everett Hale - Boston Public Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
* 1913 Schoolboy Statue of 1850- Ashburnham, MA
* 1914 Nathan Hale - Yale University, with copy at Central Intelligence Agency
* 1915 Nathan Hale - Department of Justice Building, Washington, DC

Influence

* Bashka Paeff, student
* Dudley Pratt, son

References

* Downes, William Howe. "The Work of Bela L. Pratt, Sculptor." New England Magazine 27 (February 1903): 760-771.
* Coburn, Frederick W. "Americanism in Sculpture. As Represented in the Works of Bela Lyon Pratt." Palette and Bench 2, nos. 5 and 6 (February-March 1910): 95-97, 127-131.
* Dorr, Charles Henry. "Bela L. Pratt: An Eminent New England Sculptor." Architectural Record 35, no. 6 (June 1914): 508-518.
* Obituary, The New York Times (19 May 1917).
* Taft, Lorado. The History of American Sculpture, New York, 1924: 491-496.

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