Dudley Pratt was an American sculptor. He was born in Paris to Boston sculptors Bela

Bela Pratt

Bela Lyon Pratt was an American sculptor.-Life:Pratt was born in Norwich, Connecticut to Sarah and George Pratt, a Yale-educated lawyer. His maternal grandfather, Oramel Whittlesey, was a pianoforte maker and founder in 1835 of the first music school in the country authorized to confer degrees to...

 and Helen Pratt. His sculptural education included study under Charles Grafly

Charles Grafly

Charles Allan Grafly, Jr. was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for 37 years.-Life and career:...

, Émile Antoine Bourdelle, and Alexander Archipenko

Alexander Archipenko

Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko was a Ukrainian avant-garde artist, sculptor, and graphic artist.-Biography:...

.

Pratt married fellow sculptor Virginia Claflin

Virginia Claflin Pratt

Virginia Claflin Pratt was an American sculptor and the wife of Dudley Pratt. Her speciality was portraits of children.- References :...

 while they were students at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is an undergraduate and graduate college located in Boston, Massachusetts, dedicated to the visual arts. It is affiliated with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and offers undergraduate and graduate degree programs in partnership with Tufts University...

. The couple moved to Seattle

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

 in 1925. After Virginia's death in 1952, Pratt relocated to Croton Falls, New York, where he met and married the painter Colleen (Finch) Halvorsen. In 1965, the Pratts moved to San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende

San Miguel de Allende is a city and municipality located in the far eastern part of the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. It is 274 km from Mexico City and 97 km from the state capital of Guanajuato...

, Mexico; Pratt died there in 1975.

Pratt's major work includes sculpture for several buildings on the University of Washington

University of Washington

University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...

's Seattle campus (Hutchinson Hall, the Henry Art Gallery

Henry Art Gallery

The Henry Art Gallery is the art museum of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, USA. Located on the west edge of the university's campus along 15th Avenue N.E. in the University District, it was founded in 1927 and was the first public art museum in the state of Washington. The...

, Smith Hall, More Hall, Gerberding Hall, and the University of Washington Medical Center

University of Washington Medical Center

The University of Washington Medical Center is a nationally renowned hospital located along the Montlake Cut and Portage Bay in the University District of Seattle, Washington, USA. It is one of the teaching hospitals affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine. UW Medical Center...

), as well as sculpture for the Hoquiam City Hall, the Bellingham City Hall, the Everett Public Library

Everett Public Library

The Everett Public Library serves the residents of Everett, Washington. EPL operates a main library at 2702 Hoyt Avenue and the Evergreen branch, at 9512 Evergreen Way. The main library overlooks Puget Sound and the southern end of Whidbey Island. The library has noteworthy artworks, including...

 in Everett, Washington

Everett, Washington

Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. Named for Everett Colby, son of founder Charles L. Colby, it lies north of Seattle. The city had a total population of 103,019 at the 2010 census, making it the 6th largest in the state and...

, and the former Doctors Hospital in Seattle, now part of the Virginia Mason Medical Center

Virginia Mason Medical Center

Virginia Mason Medical Center , founded in 1920, is a private, non-profit organization located in Seattle, Washington.-Organization:Gary S. Kaplan, MD, serves as chairman and CEO....

 campus. His 14 feet (4.3 m) Carrara marble Gold Star Mother was a central part of the World War II memorial on the 1949 Seattle Public Safety Building by NBBJ

NBBJ

NBBJ is a global architecture, planning and design firm with offices in Beijing, Boston, Columbus, Dubai, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle, and Shanghai....

, and his limestone The Reader adorns Holland Library on the Washington State University

Washington State University

Washington State University is a public research university based in Pullman, Washington, in the Palouse region of the Pacific Northwest. Founded in 1890, WSU is the state's original and largest land-grant university...

 campus in Pullman, Washington

Pullman, Washington

Pullman is the largest city in Whitman County, Washington, United States. The population was 24,675 at the 2000 census and 29,799 according to the 2010 census...

. He sculpted many freestanding works as well, four of which are in the collection of the Seattle Art Museum

Seattle Art Museum

The Seattle Art Museum is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, USA. It maintains three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill, and the Olympic Sculpture Park on the central Seattle waterfront, which opened on...

. His students included sculptors George Tsutakawa

George Tsutakawa

George Tsutakawa , sculptor and painter, was born in Seattle, Washington. Tsutakawa spent much of his childhood in Okayama, Japan. He returned to Seattle at the age of 16, where he attended Broadway High School before earning a BFA at the University of Washington. One of his early mentors was...

 and Jean Johanson

Jean Johanson

Jean Louise P. Johanson was an American sculptor, mosaic artist, and jewelry designer.She was a student of sculptor Dudley Pratt, and took two summer classes with Alexander Archipenko during his visits to the University of Washington in the 1930s. She graduated from the University of Washington in...

.

External links

• A 1945 photograph of Dudley Pratt by Ernst Kassowitz is available here.

• An article about public art on the UW campus includes a photograph of a grotesque on Smith Hall.

• Several photographs of Pratt's work in Western Washington are available in a photo collection on flickr.