Berthold Nebel

Berthold Nebel (1889–1964) was an American sculptor.

Berthold Nebel was born in 1889 in Basel, Switzerland, and came to the United States with his parents when he was a year old.

By 1900 his parents had settled in New Jersey, and Nebel as a young boy 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, New Jersey, where he learned to model in clay. This factory produced architectural ornaments for Fifth Avenue mansions at the time. This exposure to a new media shifted his interest from painting to sculpture.

While he was working days he studied at night at the National Academy of Design and the Mechanics' Institute, and attended James Earle Fraser's classes at the Art Students League of New York. Fraser was very supportive of Nebel’s work, and encouraged him to enter a competition. Nebel won the prize for the Rome Prize in 1914 when the subject for sculptors and painters was “Good Government.” He won the sculpture’s prize with a group of a seated woman, a standing man, and a child: a family and an interpretation of good government and good living that represented his personal philosophy throughout his life. The group was shown at the 30th Annual Exhibition of the Architectural League of New York in February 1915.

His three-year fellowship from 1914-1917 at the American Academy in Rome coincided with the early years of World War I. When the United States entered the war in 1917, Nebel remained in Italy and became a supply officer and interpreter for the Red Cross. With this job, he was able to marry the former Maria Lucantoni, whom he met at the American Academy in Rome when she was a model.

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