Bartlett was born in 1835 in
Dorset, Vermont, studied under
Robert Eberhard Launitz in
New York City and subsequently in
Paris,
Rome, and
Perugia. He was active in
New Haven,
Waterbury, and
Hartford, Connecticut, and in
New York City. For 22 years he was an instructor at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology's architecture department, and also operated a free art school for poor children. He died in
Boston,
Massachusetts. Bartlett ran the only school for sculpture in Boston in that late 1800s. It was located on
Washington Street, but later moved to
Federal Street.
Cyrus Dallin studied with Bartlett from 1880-1881. Bartlett allowed Dallin to live in his studio rent free when his funding ran low and wrote positively of his talents. The relationship would sour and in 1885 Bartlett would be critical of Dallin's winning first effort in the competition to sculpt
Paul Revere. in 1869) , Waterbury, CT (designed by Truman H. Bartlett in 1871; sculpted by
Ferdinand von Miller in 1872) == References ==