Lot 30: Karl Theodore Francis Bitter (1867-1915)

An Allegorical Plaque
inscribed and dated 'Karl Bitter.SC..1899.' (lower right)
bronze with weathered patina
21 1/2 x 39 in. (54.6 x 99 cm.)

J.M. Dennis, Karl Bitter: Architectural Sculptor, 1867-1915, Madison, Wisconsin, 1967, p. 85, fig. 34, William Pepper Monument illustrated.
F. Schevill, Karl Bitter: A Biography, Chicago, Illinois, 1917, p. 8, William Pepper Monument illustrated.

PROPERTY OF A LADY

The design for the present work was commissioned by the management of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1894 and completed in 1899. Another cast of this panel along with one of a matching motif adorns opposing sides of the William Pepper monument on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Bitter's larger then life seated figure of Provost William Pepper M.D., LL.D. was fully completed and unveiled December 20th, 1899.

The present panel depicts a female figure in a diaphanous gown reclining on one arm. Over the outstretched arm is inscribed "All things exist in the man tinged with the manners of his soul," a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essay on Character of 1844. She is clutching the torch of knowledge with her extanded hand and in the background the tree of knowledge spreads its branches. The Pepper monument has a pendant plaque on the opposite side of the base that depicts a fruit bearing tree and a figure actively caring for the coming harvest. This second plaque is inscribed: "There will be sleeping enough in the grave," one of Peppers favorite quotes.