Bryant Baker

Bryant Baker studied in London at the City and Guild Technical Institute and the Royal Academy of Arts. His decorative carvings and sculpture were installed at Westminster Abbey and other cathedrals. In 1916 he moved to the United States and served in the army, working to rehabilitate American veterans from World War I by modeling artificial limbs. Baker won commissions for busts of five presidents, including John F. Kennedy. He also made bronze and marble statues of other political figures such as Abraham Lincoln and Henry Cabot Lodge. He was a Fellow of the National Sculpture Society, the Royal Society of British Sculptors, and a life member of St. George’s Society.

National Museum of American Art (CD-ROM) (New York and Washington D.C.: MacMillan Digital in cooperation with the National Museum of American Art, 1996)

Bryant Baker was born in London into a family of sculptors and craftsmen. He studied at the Royal Academy of Arts and created decorative carvings for Westminster Abbey and the Victoria and Albert Museum. While at the academy, he was chosen by King George V and Queen Alexandra to model a statue and bust of King Edward VII. The royal family were so pleased with his work that they requested fourteen replicas of the bust in marble. In 1916 he came to the United States and volunteered in the Medical Corps, making artificial limbs and face masks for injured soldiers. He created sculptures of many presidents, including a seventeen-foot statue of George Washington and busts of William H. Taft, John F. Kennedy, and Calvin Coolidge.