Bela Lyon Pratt

Background

Pratt, Bela Lyon was born on December 11, 1867 in Norwich, Connecticut, United States. Son of George and Sarah Victoria (Whittlesey) Pratt.

Education

Early education in public schools. Modeled and drew at home when a child. Entered Yale School of Fine Arts at 16, studying under Professors Niemeyer and Wier.

(Bachelor of Fine Arts, Yale University, 1899.

Master of Arts, Harvard University, 1915). Entered Art Students League of New York, 1887, studying there under Augustus Saint Gaudens, F. Edwin Elwell, William Chase, Kenyon Cox.

Worked for Saint Gaudens in his studio. Student at Paris, 1890, of Chapu and Falquiere, entered École des Beaux Arts at head of class, same year.

Received 2 medals and 2 prizes while in Paris.

Returned to the United States, 1892.

Career

Instructor of modeling, Boston Museum Fine Arts, since 1893. Has produced many works in sculpture, statues (portrait and ideal), memorials, groups, tablets, busts, medallions, et cetera Two colossal groups on Water Gate of Peristyle, Chicago Exposition.

Eliot medal for Harvard University, and Yale Bicentennial Meda

Six 7-foot spandrel figures for main entrance, 12-foot figure, “Philosophy,” and series of four medallions, “The Seasons,” in pavilion of Library of Congress. Groups and tablets (bronze) for battleships Massachusetts, Kearsarge and Alabama.

Recumbent figure Doctor Coit, Saint Paul’s Church, Concord, New Hampshire (U.S.) (honorable mention Paris Salon, 1897). Study of Young Girl (2d medal Buffalo Exposition, 1901).

Various groups for Buffalo Exposition.

Statues Bishop Brooks, Brooks House, Cambridge, Butler Monument, Lowell, Massachusetts, Governor John Winthrop, Junior, New London, Connecticut. Cenotaph for Bishop Neely, Portland, Maine. Figure (marble) Review John Cotton, First Church, Boston.

General Stevenson (bronze), State House, Boston.

“Hope” (bronze figure, life size), Battleship Rhode Island. Andersonville monument for State of Connecticut, Andersonville, Georgia.

Busts of General C. J. Paine, Bishop Huntington, Review Doctor Herrick, Doctor Homans, Doctor Richard Hodgson, Longfellow medal. Malden Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument.

Harvard Spanish War Memorial.

Army nurses monument, State House, Boston. “Science” and “Art,” front of Public Library, Boston. Young Men's Christian Association tablet, Newport, Rhode Island.

Statue of Nathan Hale, Yale Campus.

Whaleman’s memorial, New Bedford, Massachusetts. Gold medal, Panama Philippine Islands Exposition, 1915.

Achievements

• Bela Lyon Pratt has been listed as a noteworthy sculptor by Marquis Who's Who.

Membership

Member Massachusetts State Art Commission A.N.A., 1910. Member American Academy Arts and Sciences.

Connections

Married Helen Lugada Pray, August 11, 1897.

Father:

George Pratt

Mother:

Sarah Victoria (Whittlesey) Pratt

Spouse:

Helen Lugada Pray