With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Berthold Nebel
Sculpture
1889 – 1964
- Biography/Description of Work
Berthold Nebel was born in Basel, Switzerland, and came to New Jersey with his parents when he was a year old. As a young boy he took lessons in oil painting from “an artist lady” who told him she could teach him nothing more and that he must go to art school. He began work at a decorative terra cotta factory in Perth Amboy, where he learned to model in clay. The factory produced architectural ornaments for Fifth Avenue mansions at the time. This exposure to a new media shifted his interest from painting to sculpture. Nebel took night classes at the National Academy of Design and the Mechanics’ Institute, as well as classes under Earle Fraser at the Art Students League. After a fellowship in Rome and serving as Director of the School of Sculpture at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (Carnegie-Mellon University) in Pittsburgh for five years, he returned to New York City in 1925. That year, he patented a machine which could reproduce three dimensional objects in large scale. In 1929, Nebel moved to Westport, where he converted a barn to a studio and later built an additional stone studio. His commissions included medals, figural groups, monumental bronze doors, and portrait statues such as that of General John Sedgwick for the State Capitol in Hartford.
- Sources view
- http://www.ctoldhouse.com/BertholdNebelInWestport.html (blog post re stone studio) Uconn database, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthold_Nebel, http://www.ctoldhouse.com/BertholdNebelInWestport.html, http://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Berthold-Nebel/2F5FDCC05C220325, http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=18207, http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artist/?id=3502, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joseph_Wheeler_bronze_by_Berthold_Nebel.jpg Berthold Nebel Daughter Wedding Announcement - New York Times - 1954-4-4, Berthold Nebel Obituary - New York Times - 1964-4-5, Berthold Nebel Obituary - The Hartford Courant - 1964-4-6, Berthold Nebel Son Wedding Announcement - New York Times - 1956-6-3, Berthold Nebel Wife Obituary - New York Times - 1975-12-9
- Associated Resource(s)