In 1874, he went to California. By 1880, he had returned east to Hartford, and was married to Harriet Josephine Gerhardt, who came from Dalton, Massachusetts. He worked for a spell as chief machinist at the Pratt and Whitney Machine Tool Company in Hartford and pursued sculpting in his leisure hours.
His first works were a bust of his wife and “A Startled Bather.” He was so successful at sculpting, that in 1881 Mark Twain financed a trip to study in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts. In Paris his work was exhibited in the salon and won prizes. In 1884 he exhibited at the salon “Echo,” a statuette, and “Eve's Lullaby,” a life-size group.
Gerhardt's wife died in 1897. They had two children. In 1908, he was living in New Orleans, and by 1920 he had moved to Shreveport, Louisiana.
Selected works
Statuette of Mercury, marble, Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut, 1883. A copy after a statue at the Naples National Archaeological Museum, in Naples Italy.
Statuette of Echo, marble, Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut, 1883.
Bust of Samuel L. Clemens, Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut, 1884.
Bust of Henry Ward Beecher, marble, Mark Twain House, Hartford, Connecticut, 1885.
