Norwich bulletin., 1918-04-11
RELA LYON PRATT.
The Amazing Extent, Variety and Ex-
 celIence of His Achievement.

CellGnLe or HIS AC4IeNSDlSflLs
 -
 Regarding the late Bela Lyon Pratt. the noted sculptor and a native of Norwich, the Boston Evening Tran script says:
 Even those who had followed most the professional career of the late Bella Lyon Pratt and who be- lieved themselves to be familiar with | all phases of his achievement, find | causs for abazement in the extent l variety and excellence of his oeuvre, | as set forth in the imposing and hand- | somely installed nemoriaal exhibition of his sculpture in the Renaissance Court of the Museum of Fine Arts. Much as his work was appreciated dur ing his life tinle--for more. than twen- ty years he was indisputably at the head of his profession in Boston-it rena ined for this exhibition to give us the full measure of his importance as a sculptor Here for the first time we are able to see at a glance as it were, ti.e whole scope. significance and superiority of his life work
 Born in Norwich. Conn, in 1887. Mir. Pratt came of a family which was American in it's every branch for over two centuries. He began his artistic studies while he was mere child, by drawing and modelling at home; and at tho age of sixteen he entered the Yale School of Fine Arts. where he studied under Professors Weir and Niemeyer. In 1887 he entered the Art Students League of New. York, where his masters were August
 Saint Caudens, F, Edwin Elwell
 Kenyon Cox, and William M Chase. During the three years he passed in this school he also had the valuable opportunity of working for Saint Gaudens in his New York. studio. In 1890 he went to Paris and continued his training under Chapu and Fall guiere. He entered the Ecole Ma tionale des Bsaux Arts at the head of his class the same year. While in Paris he received three medals and two prizes. Returning to the United
 States in 1892, he was appointed in- structor in modelling in the School of the Museum of, Fine Arts, in 1893. and he continued to occupy that position
 up to the time of his death list year. This training, it. will be seen, was thorough and severe and he was a man
 to make the most of it. From the out set he was very serious artist, with high ideals and exacting standards. His work as a teacher here has been of great importance and worth. In the twenty four years of his career in Boston he found, time and opportunity
 to produce something between two and three hundred sculptural works. of which more than oae-l1alf are included III the present loan exhibition--colos- sal groups, single figures, reIiefs, 1etc., for public baildings; monuments, statues and, portrait busts: portrait series of bronze and marble ideal nude figures suitable for fountains: and a long list of minor, commissions Sum
 ming it all up, it is a truly remark able manifestation of continuous power of production, fertility of in- vention, and fine plastic feeling. More l over. it isa possible, now that So many of his best works may be, seen to- gether: to perceive "a, clear line of | steadyy logical sfninterunted growth in l his intellectual and technical. powers. Perhaps his rerown will intimately rest mainly upon his small rather than his large works. He was a master of portraiture, as is shown by his DOT
 trait busts, notably, those of General
 Charles Paine. pr. Richard Hodg-
 son, Colonel Henry Lee. Major Henry l.. Higginson and. the. series of mar
 Medical school His, series of statu-
 cites of nude f1g1trees which was be- | gun about 1900 has great originality a beautiful sentiment of grace ant
 charm and youthful purity, and z
 vetn of poetry. which is peculiar tt
 himself. : In his low relief work or a small scale. such as his plaques
 medals, etc, there is a great deal O
 the same feeling for linear compost
 tion, subtle contrasts of light ana
 dark, and the sympathetic interpreta
 tion of human traits in ahis subjects as that which gave distinction to tn
 same genre of work in his master l Saint Gaudens-a tender and lovabl E.vein of elegance and distinction an, sweetness which never becomes cloy ing, but often reminds one of the ba
 reliefs of the Italian Renaissanc sculptors. A s0f
 Even when he had commissions fo large, ott-of-d doors works, like tn
 symbolic figures. which stand in iron of the. Boston Public library. or tn |. l portrait of Edward Everett Hale i, ; the Public Garden, or the Nathanie , Hawthorne monument for. Salem, will be found that the small origina studies and models are more satis factory and pleasing 7than the full l size completed works. The lihrar figures are especially noteworthy in SLdlf-SS ci IthiS CIISI61CS. III ln0l l. finished estate they are ineffective they do not "carry'': they are almos } insignificant; but when we saw thes figures in the studio they seemed al together fine appropriate, and full C 5 style.
 7 Mir. Pratt's earliest works were tn : two colossal groups for the water gat 5 of the great peristyle in the Court c : Honor of the Chicago Worlds Fair ( ] 1893. The same year saw the creatic 3 of one of his most delightful medal g lions, that of the two young daughter f of Dr. Frederick c. Shattuck. Sive :. l the thlng of slightest consequence l a work of art. and we do not douE f lthat the charming little bas relief wi l live longer, in the memory than the bi v groups for the Fpefistyle In 1894 h
 made the low relief portrait group ( :. Mrs. Shattuck and her daughter. tn
 low relief portrai. group of the chi
 dren of William Slater, and tn |, Charles William Eliot medal. In 1Se and 1896 he was engaged on his com
 mission for the Library of Congress
 these comprised q series of six span ;, drel figures above the main entrant !, the colossal figure of Philosophy ;, ! the rotunda, and a set of four hig Il relief medallions of the Four Seasor for the pavilion. It was about tn :, time that he began that rernarkab Q Q series of portrait busts which is $ Il Il fully and so admirably .represente in this exhibition. The earliest of tE