Isidore Konti

Konti, circa 1905

Isidore Konti (July 9, 1862 – January 11, 1938) was a Vienna-born (of Hungarian parents) sculptor. He began formal art studies at the age of 16 when he entered the Imperial Academy in Vienna where he studied under Edmund von Hellmer. In 1886 he won a scholarship that allowed him to study in Rome for two years. While there he developed a love of Renaissance art that was to affect the nature of his mature sculpture. Upon returning to Austria, Konti worked as an architectural modeler.

In 1890, 1891 or 1892 (depending on the source) Konti moved, permanently as it turned out, to America, there going straight to Chicago where he began working on sculptural decorations for the World's Columbian Exposition. When the work there was completed, he moved to New York City and commenced working as an assistant for fellow Austrian expatriate Karl Bitter. In 1900, for the exposition in Buffalo, New York, in 1904 for the one in St. Louis and for the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, Konti's skills as a modeler kept him in much demand.

Konti died in Yonkers, New York on January 11, 1938.

Architectural sculpture

Like many sculptor of that epoch Konti created architectural sculpture. His works in this arena include:

• tympanum, Grace Chapel, New York City 1894
• spandrel figures, the Elbridge Gerry home, New York City, 1895
• Three Graces (for which Audrey Munson served as the model) Hotel Astor, New York, 1907
• Gainsborough Studio Building, New York City, 1908
• statues of Justinian and Alfred the Great for the Cuyahoga County Court House in Cleveland, Ohio 1910
• capitols, panels and allegorical figures for the Pan-American Building in Washington D.C. 1910
• Home Life Insurance Building

Public monuments and fountains

• McKinley Memorial, Yonkers, New York 1906
• Mother & Child: the Bath, fountain in Katonah, New York, c. 1910
• recumbent figure of Morgan Dix, Trinity Church, New York, 1915
• Gumbel Memorial Fountain, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1919 - the fate of this work is not known, following the destruction of much of that city by natural disasters in 2005.
• Hyams Memorial Fountain, New Orleans, Louisiana, 1921 - the fate of this work is not known, following the destruction of much of that city by natural disasters in 2005.
• recumbent figure of Bishop Potter, Church of St. John the Divine, New York City, 1921
• Yonkers War Memorial, Yonkers, NY, 1922
• Edgar John Lownes Memorial, Swan Point Cemetery, Rhode Island, 1924
• Hudson - Fulton Monument, Yonkers, New York, 1924
• Spanish - American War Memorial, Yonkers, New York, 1928
• Lincoln Monument, Lincoln Park, Yonkers, New York, 1929
• Father Kelehan Memorial, St. Joseph's Cemetery, Yonkers, New York, 1929
• Governor Francis T. Nicholls , State Capitol Building, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 1931

Besides these works Isidore Konti produced numerous medals, plaques, figures and figurines that are today highly sought after by museums and collectors.

References

• Craven, Wayne, Sculpture in America, Thomas Y. Crowell Co, NY, NY 1968
• Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Architectural Sculpture in America unpublished manuscript
• Madigan, Mary Jean Smith, The Sculpture of Isidore Konti: 1862 - 1938, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY 1974
• National Sculpture Society, Exhibition of American Sculpture Catalogue, 1923, National Sculpture Society, New York 1923
• Opitz, Glenn B , Editor, Mantle Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986
• Proske, Beatrice Gilman, Brookgreen Gardens Sculpture, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina, 1968
• Taft, Lorado, The History of American Sculpture, MacMillan Co., New York, NY 1925