A Sculptor Is Born
Paul Wayland Bartlett was born on this day in 1865.
Son of the minor sculptor Truman Howe Bartlett, the artist trained in France with Emmanuel Fremiet and became an eminent Beaux Arts sculptor. Well-known examples of his work are the equestrian Lafayette (1899–1908), donated by the United States to France, and the pediment of the west wing of the U.S. Capitol.
This portrait, taken by the Peter A. Juley and Son studio, shows Bartlett with a bust of artist Walter Shirlaw (1838–1909).
The Smithsonian American Art Museum has several works by Bartlett in its collection, including Bohemian Bear Tamer (shown below), part of our traveling exhibition The Gilded Age: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Learn more about the artwork in our online exhibition, or see Bohemian Bear Tamer in person at the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina, from January 26 through April 21, 2002.
Pictured top: Portrait of Paul Wayland Bartlett, 1865 USA–1925 France, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Peter A. Juley & Son Collection.
Source: Joan Stahl. American Artists in Photographic Portraits from the Peter A. Juley & Son Collection (Washington, D.C. and Mineola, New York: National Museum of American Art and Dover Publications, Inc., 1995).
Pictured bottom: Paul Wayland Bartlett, 1865 USA–1925 France, Bohemian Bear Tamer, modeled 1887, bronze, 17 5/8 x 8 1/2 x 10 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mary O. Bowditch.