Bela Pratt

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

Life

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 Music Vale Seminary in Salem, Connecticut, the first music school in the country authorized to confer degrees to teach music. 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. One of Pratt's most famous students at the School was John A. Wilson. During this time, Pratt sculpted a series of busts of Boston's intellectual community, including Episcopal minister 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) eagle gold U.S. coins are known as the " Pratt coins" and feature an unusual intaglio Indian head, the U.S. mint's only recessed design in circulation. A memorial exhibition of 125 of his sculptures was held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in the spring of 1918."Memorial Exhibition of the Work of Bela Lyon Pratt," ''Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston'', vol. 16 (Spring 1918), pp. 28-29.

Pratt's students included Frederick Warren Allen, Daisy Blanche King., Bashka Paeff, and Richard Henry Recchia, as well as his son Dudley Pratt.

Selected works

* 1892 ''The Genius of Navigation'' – World's Columbian Exposition
* 1892 ''The Genius of Discovery'' – 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
*1896 ''Figure of Victory'' - #1 turret U.S.S. Massachusetts, (Sculpture now housed at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland).
* 1897 ''Dr. Henry Augustus Coit'' – St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire
* 1902 ''General Benjamin Franklin Butler Monument'' - Hildreth Cemetery, Lowell, Massachusetts
* 1906 ''Young Soldier'' – St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire
* 1907 '' Andersonville Boy'' – State Capitol Grounds, Hartford, Connecticut
* 1908 ''Abraham Lincoln Monument'' – Lowell, Massachusetts
* 1910 ''Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument'', Bell Rock Memorial Park, Malden, Massachusetts
* 1910 ''Nathaniel Hawthorne'' – Salem, Massachusetts
* 1910 ''Art'' w/palette right, ''Science'' w/sphere left, Boston Public Library, Boston, Massachusetts
* Army Nurses Memorial
* 1913 ''Whaleman's Monument'' – New Bedford, Massachusetts
* 1913 ''Edward Everett Hale'' – Boston Public Garden, Boston, Massachusetts
* 1913 '' Schoolboy Statue of 1850'' – Ashburnham, MA
* 1914 ''Grieving Mother'' - Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge National Historical Park, Pennsylvania
* 1914 '' Captain Nathan Hale'' – Yale University
**Central Intelligence Agency, Quantico, Virginia
**Department of Justice Building, Washington, D.C.
**''Chicago Tribune'', Chicago, Illinois
**Fort Nathan Hale, New Haven, Connecticut
* 1916 ''Reverend Phillips Brooks'', Old Common, North Andover, Massachusetts

Gallery

File:Genius_of_Navigation_by_Bela_Pratt.jpg, ''Genius of Navigon'' (1893), World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois
File:The_genius_of_discovery.jpg, ''Genius of Discovery (1893), World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois
File:Figure of Victory by Bela Lyon Pratt, U.S.S. Massachusetts.jpg, ''Figure of Victory'' (1896), #1 turret U.S.S. Massachusetts
File:General Butler's Monument (Rear).jpg, ''General Butler Monument'' (1902), Lowell, Massachusetts
Image:Young Soldier by Bela Pratt, St. Paul's School - Concord, New Hampshire.JPG, ''Young Soldier'' (1906), St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire
File:Andersonville Boy Civil War Monument by Bela Pratt, Hartford, CT - February 2016.JPG, ''Andersonville Boy'' (1907), State Capitol grounds, Hartford, Connecticut
File:Abraham Lincoln Relief by Bela Pratt - Boston, MA - DSC08086.JPG, ''Relief Portrait of Abraham Lincoln'' (1908), Lowell, Massachusetts
File:MaldenMA BellRockParkCivilWarMemorial.jpg, ''Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument'' (1910), Malden, Massachusetts
File:Nathaniel Hawthorne (Sculpture) -- Detail.JPG, ''Nathaniel Hawthorne'' (1910), Salem, Massachusetts
File:Edward Everett Hale by Bela Pratt - Boston Public Garden - DSC08212.JPG, ''Edward Everett Hale'' (1913), Boston Public Garden
File:Valley Forge National Historical Park 2013-09-30 23-52-57.jpg, ''Grieving Mother'' (1914), Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
File:Nathan Hale by Bela Lyon Pratt at the Chicago Tribune, Chicago, IL, USA.jpg, ''Captain Nathan Hale'' (1914), Chicago Tribune Building, Chicago, Illinois

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.

;Specific

External links

AAAS
Names of members
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pratt, Bela
1867 births
1917 deaths
Yale School of Art alumni
People from Norwich, Connecticut
American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts
Sculptors from Connecticut
Art Students League of New York alumni
School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts faculty
20th-century American sculptors
20th-century American male artists
19th-century American sculptors
19th-century male artists
Sculptors from New York (state)
Artists of the Boston Public Library
American currency designers
Coin designers
19th-century American male artists