One fateful day in 1881 a local machinist named Karl Gerhardt and his wife, Hariet, knocked on the door of the Clemens family asking if they would be interested in visiting his art studio to look at his work that he was pursuing in his spare time. Samuel and OliviaThey agreed to the visit, and Samuel and Olivia were surprised to see a life-sized depiction of Harriet Gerhardt nude to her waist in sculpture but were impressed with the artistry. The families became friendly and Samuel took an interest in supporting Gerhardt’s artistic career.

Karl Gerhardt was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1853. Gerhardt apprenticed as a house painter,His training was originally as a house painter and apprenticed with that career in mind. However, instead of following that path he became a machinist at Ames Foundry and showed promise in the field of mechanics. This led him to become a designer of machinery and equipment in Hartford. He married Harriet Gloyd and worked briefly for Pratt and Whitney Machine Tool Company. During his downtime Gerhardt focused on sculpting and found it to be a passion of his. His first known sculpture was, A Startled Bather, with his wife as the model. for it

After their initial meeting, Samuel asked for professional advice from his prominent artist friends, and ultimately he and Olivia decided to finance Gerhardt’s education at the leading art school in Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Clemens also financed Gerhardt’shis living models and private art instruction. Gerhardt went on to create some renowned work including a statue of Connecticut’s state hero Nathan Hale, a statue of General Warren posed on Little Round Top in Gettysburg, a bust of Mark Twain featured in the frontispiece of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the death mask of President Ulysses S. Grant (link to image and link to story).

By 1891 Gerhardt’s commissions had diminished drastically and he returned to work as a draftsman and machinist to make ends meet. He spent a short amount of time working for Pope Manufacturing Company (link) in Hartford famous for their bicycles. After his wife died in 1897 from tetanus due to a rusty nail, Gerhardt moved to New Orleans and worked as a laborer and tailor until his death in 1940.