Карл Биттер: Америкалық мүсінші және өнертапқыш

American sculptor (1867 1915)
the German minister of finance and writer on music

Karl Theodore Francis Bitter (December 6, 1867 – April 9, 1915) was an Austrian born American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture, memorials and residential work.

The son of Carl and Henrietta Bitter, he was born in the municipal district Rudolfsheim Fünfhaus of Vienna. His early training took place at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule (the imperial school for the applied arts), and after that at the Kunstakademie (the Academy of Fine Arts). At the Academy, he studied with August Kühne and Edmund Heller. Upon his graduation, he was apprenticed to an architectural sculptor,. This was the period that the Ringstraße was being built in Vienna, and a large number of decorated buildings were being built. He was drafted into the Austrian Army, and deserted while on leave. He was unable to return to Austria for many years because of his desertion. He later was pardoned by Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, who hoped to lure the famous sculptor back to Vienna. Bitter immigrated to the United States in 1889, arriving in New York City. He applied for citizenship, and set to work as an assistant with a firm of Ellin, Kitson & Co. ("The Founder of American Architectural Decoration," Stone vol. XXIV, no. 4. (Apr. 1902): pp. 343 345.) While employed with this firm, at age 21, he competed for the Astor memorial bronze gates of Trinity Church and won. The work gave him sufficient capital to build and establish a small studio on 13th Street. About this time, Bitter was discovered by Richard Morris Hunt, the architect of choice of many of New York's rich and famous. From that time on Bitter was never without work. After working as a sculptor at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and as director at the Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, New York in 1901, Bitter's extraordinary organizational skills led him to be named head of the sculpture programs at both the 1904 St. Louis Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri, where Lee Lawrie trained with his guidance, and the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco, California. In 1906/1907, he presided over the National Sculpture Society. Among the awards won by Bitter were the silver medal of the Paris Exposition, 1900; the gold medal of the Pan American Exposition, 1901; a gold medal at Philadelphia, 1902; and the gold medal at the St. Louis Exposition, 1904. 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.

Dr. William Pepper (1895, bronze), south side of College Hall, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. William Pepper (1899, bronze), Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Breckenridge Memorial Tablet (1902, bronze), United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland. Signing the Treaty (later known as Louisiana Purchase Group) (1904, staff), Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis. Model for Louisiana Purchase Group (undated, plaster), St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri. Louisiana Purchase Group (1913, bronze), Missouri History Museum, St. Louis. Equestrian statue of General Franz Sigel (1907, bronze), Riverside Park, Riverside Drive & 108th Street, Manhattan, New York City. William Henry Baldwin Jr. Memorial Tablet (1909, marble), Tuskegee Institute, Tuskegee, Alabama. Dr. James Burrill Angell Memorial Tablet (1909, bronze), Alumni Memorial Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Alexander Hamilton (1911, bronze), flanking main entrance to Cuyahoga County Courthouse, Cleveland, Ohio. Thomas Jefferson (1911, bronze), flanking main entrance to Cuyahoga County Courthouse, Cleveland, Ohio. First version. Thomas Jefferson (1913, marble), Missouri History Museum, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri. Second version. Model for Thomas Jefferson (undated, plaster), St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri. Thomas Jefferson (1915, bronze), University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Third version. Thomas Jefferson (1915, bronze), Jefferson High School, Portland, Oregon. Henry Philip Tappan Memorial (1913, bronze), Tappan Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Carl Schurz Monument (1913, bronze), Morningside Park, Manhattan, New York City. Carl Schurz Monument (1914, bronze), Menominee Park, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Thomas Lowry Monument (1915, bronze), Smith Triangle Park, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Andrew Dickson White (1915, bronze), outside Goldwin Smith Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Pomona (1916, bronze), Pulitzer Fountain, Grand Army Plaza, Manhattan, New York City. Completed by Isidore Konti and Karl Gruppe. Depew Memorial Fountain (1919, bronze), Indiana World War Memorial Plaza, Indianapolis, Indiana. Completed by Alexander Stirling Calder. Louisiana Purchase Group (by 1929, bronze), Missouri State Capitol, Jefferson City, Missouri. Adolph Alexander Weinman oversaw the posthumous casting and designed the sculpture's granite setting. Heroic statue of Henry Hudson (1939, bronze), Henry Hudson Park, Bronx, New York City. Commissioned in 1909, it was completed from Bitter's plaster model by Isidore Konti and Karl Gruppe.