Percy Bryant Baker (July 8, 1881 – March 29, 1970) better known as Bryant Baker, was a British-born American sculptor. He sculpted a number of busts of famous Americans (including five presidents). In 1910, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom commissioned him to create a bust of King Edward VII.

Bryant Baker
portrait by Sidney Edward Dickinson
Born	Percy Bryant Baker (1881-07-08)July 8, 1881 London, England, U.K.
Died	March 29, 1970(1970-03-29) (aged 88) New York, New York, U.S.
Nationality	British American
Education	City and Guild Technical Institute Royal Academy of Arts
Known for	Sculpture
Notable work	Pioneer Woman; L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune; George Washington, Mason

Life and career

Baker was born on July 8, 1881, in London, United Kingdom, to John Baker, a sculptor.[1] His father and his sculptor grandfather both worked on wood and stone carvings at Westminster Abbey.[2] His brother was Robert P. Baker, also a sculptor of note.[3] He became an apprentice sculptor under his father, and carved Gothic statues for Beverley Minster and decorative elements for the Victoria and Albert Museum.[1] He studied art and sculpting at the City and Guild Technical Institute and later at the Royal Academy of Arts.[4] He graduated from the latter in 1910.[5]

In 1910, Queen Alexandra commissioned him to sculpt a bust of Edward VII.[6] She was so impressed with his work, that she then commissioned him to design a life-size statue of Edward VII, and later a bust in marble of the nine-year-old Prince Olaf of Norway.[4]

In 1916, Baker emigrated to the United States, where he enlisted in the United States Army. He served during World War I in Army hospitals, crafting artificial limbs and face masks for wounded soldiers.[4] He became a U.S. citizen in 1923.[2]

In 1928, millionaire Oklahoma oilman E. W. Marland sponsored a $100,000 competition to create a statue honoring pioneering women of the American Old West. Baker won the design competition, and in 1930 his 27-foot (8.2 m) high, 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg) statue, Pioneer Woman, was unveiled in Ponca City, Oklahoma. It became his best-known work.[4] In 1957, Baker was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full member in 1959.^{[citation needed]}

Baker never married. In his final years, Baker lived in The Gainsborough high-rise apartment building at 222 West 59th Street in New York City. He died of unspecified causes at St. Barnabas Hospital in The Bronx on March 29, 1970.[4] He was cremated, and his ashes interred at St. Peter's Church in Fordcombe, Kent, England.[7]

Shortly after his death, the contents of his New York studio were purchased and moved to the E. W. Marland Mansion in Ponca City.^{[citation needed]} The mansion is now known as the Ponca City Cultural Center, and Baker's studio and copies of many of his works are on display there.^{[citation needed]}

Baker was a Freemason, and belonged to the Constitutional Lodge No. 294 at Beverley, Yorkshire, England.[5]

Notable works

• Pioneer Woman, 1930, Ponca City, Oklahoma, 27 feet (8.2 m) tall
• Portrait plaque of Stephen Tyng Mather, 1930, with castings in dozens of U.S. National Park Service areas
• Grover Cleveland, 1932, Buffalo, New York, monumental sized
• Millard Fillmore, 1932, Buffalo, New York, monumental sized
• L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune, 1934, Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
• John M. Clayton, 1934, National Statuary Hall Collection, Washington D.C. (for Delaware)
• Caesar Rodney, 1934, National Statuary Hall Collection, Washington D.C. (for Delaware)
• Abraham Lincoln Statue, 1935, Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York[8]
• Bust of Cordell Hull, 1943, OAS Aztec Garden, Washington, D.C. (see also: List of public art in Ward 2)
• William Borah, 1947, National Statuary Hall Collection, Washington D.C. (for Idaho)
• George Washington, 1950, George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia
• William C. Gorgas, 1954, Mobile County Health Department, Mobile, AL
• Charles Penrose, 1956, formerly in the Newcomen Society of the United States
• Bust of Sir Winston Churchill, 1958, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution[9]

According to the Smithsonian Institution, several copies of Baker's works can be found at the Ponca City Cultural Center in Ponca City, Oklahoma.[10]

Gallery

• 
  Millard Fillmore, Buffalo City Hall, Buffalo, New York, 1930
• 
  Abraham Lincoln, Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, 1935
• 
  Pioneer Woman, Ponca City, Oklahoma
• 
  William Borah, Washington, D.C., 1947
• 
  Artist's Signature, 1954
• 
  Charles Penrose, 1956

References

Bibliography

• Brown, William Adrian (1980). History of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, 1922-1974: Half Century of Construction. Washington, D.C.: George Washington Masonic National Memorial Association.
• Denslow, William R. (1957). 10,000 Famous Freemasons. Trenton, Mo.: Missouri Lodge of Research.
• Gay, Vernon; Evert, Marilyn (1983). Discovering Pittsburgh's Sculpture. Pittsburgh, Pa.: University of Pittsburgh Press. ISBN 9780822934677.
• National Sculpture Society (1929). Contemporary American Sculpture: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Lincoln Park, San Francisco. New York: Press of the Kalkhoff Company.
• Proske, Beatrice Gilman (1968). Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture. Murrells Inlet, S.C.: Brookgreen Gardens.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bryant Baker.

External links

• Works by or about Bryant Baker at Internet Archive