Background
Karl Bitter was born in Vienna, Austria on the 6th of December 1867.
Karl Bitter was born in Vienna, Austria on the 6th of December 1867.
Bitter studied art at the Kunstakademie (the Academy of Fine Arts).
In 1889 Bitter removed to the United States, where he became naturalized. In America he gained great popularity as a sculptor. Among his principal works are: the Astor memorial gates, Trinity church, New York; "Elements Controlled and Uncontrolled, " on the Administration Building at the Chicago Exposition; a large relief, "Triumph of Civilization, " in the waiting-room of the Broad Street station of the Pennsylvania railway in Philadelphia; decorations for the Dewey Naval Arch in New York City; the "Standard Bearers, " at the Pan-American Exposition grounds; a sitting statue and a bust of Dr Pepper, provost of the University of Pennsylvania; and the Villard and Hubbard memorials in the New York chamber of commerce.
He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Sciences, vice-president (1906–08 and 1914–15); the National Academy of Design, to which he was elected in 1902; the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Players' Club, Century Club, and vice-president of the Architectural League from 1904 to 1906 and from 1909 to 1911, and member of the Art Commission, New York, from 1912 to 1915.
On 30 June 1901, he married Marie A. Sherrill, of Cincinnati, Ohio. They had three children: Francis T. R. Bitter, Marietta C. E. Bitter and John F. Bitter. Their son Francis Bitter, born in 1902, became a prominent American physicist.