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.[1][2] 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).
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.[3]
Genius of Navigation (1893), World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois
Genius of Discovery (1893), World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois
Figure of Victory (1896), #1 turret U.S.S. Massachusetts
General Butler Monument (1902), Lowell, Massachusetts
Young Soldier (1906), St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire
Andersonville Boy (1907), State Capitol grounds, Hartford, Connecticut
Relief Portrait of Abraham Lincoln (1908), Lowell, Massachusetts
Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument (1910), Malden, Massachusetts
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1910), Salem, Massachusetts
Edward Everett Hale (1913), Boston Public Garden
Grieving Mother (1914), Washington Memorial Chapel, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
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.