Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Gerhardt, Karl

GERHARDT, Karl, sculptor, b. in Boston, Mass., 7 Jan., 1853. He is of German parentage, and in early life was a machinist in Chicopee, Mass., and then a designer of machinery in Hartford, Conn. His first works were a bust of his wife and “A Startled Bather,” which so strongly indicated talent that he was sent to Paris for study. In his second year he contributed to the salon, where he also exhibited in 1884 “Echo,” a statuette, and “Eve's Lullaby,” a life-size group. His other works include a bust of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, taken in the last days of his illness; busts of Samuel L. Clemens (1883) and the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher (1886); a statue of Nathan Hale (see vol. iii., p. 31) in the state capitol at Hartford (1885); an equestrian statue of Gen. Israel Putnam in Brooklyn, Conn. (1887); a statue of Josiah Bartlett, signer of the Declaration of Independence, in Amesbury, Mass. (1888); Welton Fountain, Waterbury, Conn. (1888); statue of Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren (see vol. vi., p. 362) at Gettysburg, Pa. (1888); and tablet to John Fitch, in the state capitol in Hartford, Conn. (1888).