The unfortunate wooden fence atop the mansard roof detracts from the charming cottage architecture and proportions -- photo by Alice Lum |
Karl Francis Theodore Bitter was 16 years old when he first
attempted to leave his native Austria and come to the United States. But not only did his parents prohibit the move,
so did the Viennese government.
After graduating "gymnasium," the equivalent of American high school, he studied
in several art schools; finally being trained in sculpture at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Vienna. At the age of just
19, his work earned him a gold medal that would ironically cause him severe problems and
change his life.
Bitter, like every other young man in Austria, was compelled
to join the army. He served under a
cruel Lieutenant who learned of Bitter’s artistic talent and the gold
medal. For a year the officer humiliated the young soldier and
made him the brunt of mean-hearted persecution.
Finally Bitter could take no more and deserted, fleeing to Halle in
Saxony-Anhalt.
He worked for a while on a colossal monument of a Valkyrie
being done by the German sculptor Kaffsack; then learned that the Austrian
government was attempting to extradite him.
He boarded a ship to America and immediately began the naturalization
process.
Bitter’s talent and awards landed him work with a firm of
architectural decorators where he met architect Richard Morris Hunt. It would be a relationship that would later
produce masterful joining of art and architecture.
At 21 years of age, Bitter entered the competition for the
designing of the great $200,000 bronze doors for Trinity Church. His co-workers ridiculed his audaciousness
for entering his designs among those of the most esteemed
sculptors of the day. Karl Bitter won
the competition.
The New York Times would later comment “This made his name
and gave him sufficient money to establish a small studio for himself in
Thirteenth Street.”
The small studio was actually not just “for himself,” as The
Times asserted. The little building in
the backyard of 215 Second Avenue would be shared by another sculptor, Giuseppe
Moretti. Both artists lived at the time
in the Second Avenue building.
How Bitter arranged to have his studio built here is
uncertain. The owner of the lot and the
apartment building was the artists’ landlord, Eimer & Amends, who also operated a pharmacy in the neighborhood.
Most likely it was simple finance:
Bitter’s offer to pay for an improvement in the empty lot facing 13th
Street made sense to the landowner.
Architect Max Schroff designed a quaint three-story building
no taller than normal two-story structures.
Like a storybook cottage the red brick building took the address of
249-1/2 East 13th Street. A
broad dormer window flooded light into the upper studio space in the mansard
roof. Schroff adeptly used brick to
produce a dentil cornice above street level and two blind archways above the
door and window openings.
Proudly carved into the stone course that spanned street
level was BITTER & MORETTI SCULPTORS.
photo by Alice Lum |
It was most likely from this studio that Bitter began work
on at least some of the more than 20 colossal sculptural groups for the 1893
Chicago World’s Fair. Simultaneously Moretti was working on the
sculptures for William K. Vanderbilt’s Newport mansion, Marble House, designed
by Bitter’s friend, Richard Morris Hunt.
By the way, remember the Austrian lieutenant? Bitter was surprised one afternoon to find
the former officer at his door. The
lieutenant had fallen on hard times and humbly begged for work. Bitter considered his former bully’s pitiful
tale, then hired him as a manservant.
Something went awry with Bitter’s and Moretti’s
relationship. Whether the egos of the
two now-successful sculptors clashed or whether their respective careers simply
outgrew the small space is unclear. But
whatever the case, neither artist was here for more than a year or two.
The building continued to be used as an artist studio. In 1899 the American Federation of Arts
listed sculptor Charles Albert Lopez here.
Like Bitter, Lopez created several large statues for the Chicago World’s
Fair. From the East 13th
Street studio he would produce works like the group “East Indies” for the 1899
temporary triumphal arch to Admiral Dewey and, a year later, the marble statue
of Mohammed for the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York
building.
In the summer of 1906 Lopez died after a comparatively
simple operation.
photo by Alice Lum |
The charming little studio building at No. 249-1/2 East 13th
Street remains unchanged over a century after it was built. Inside, during its early years, some of the
nation’s most remarkable marble and bronze architectural statuary came to be.
How could I have missed this one? A tad motley and ill-proportioned, but delightful nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
A wonderful and historic survivor. Love Karl Bitter's work.
ReplyDeleteJust walked by this morning....adorable
ReplyDeleteKarl Bitter was my great-great grandfather. I didn't know any of this information, very cool!
ReplyDelete