Overview
Mario Joseph Korbel was born in Bohemia, later a part of Czechoslovakia, in 1882. He studied art there, and at the age of 18 came to the United States and settled in Chicago. After five years he returned to Europe, studying in Berlin, at the Royal Academy, Munich, and in Paris at the Academie Julian. He returned to the United States, spending time in New York City, Chicago, and eventually in 1913 he settled in New York. During the 1920s, Korbel’s most significant sponsor was George Booth, the owner of the Detroit News.
He worked in bronze, often experimenting with this media, trying new patinas and textures. He often depicted idealized female nudes, and worked in the neoclassical style. Korbel was an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design, 1937; and full member of the Nation Academy of Design, 1944. His works are in a number of public collections, and he completed commissions for the state of Illinois, the McPhee Memorial in Denver, the University of Havana, Cuba, the Czech National Council, and the British-American Ambulance Corps.
Awards and Memberships
American Academy
French Legion of Honor
National Sculpture Society
Architectural League of New York
Czechoslovak Art Club
Evangelical Church Club
Embassy Club
Museums and public collections
Brookgreen Gardens, Murrells Inlet, South Carolina
Art Institute of Chicago
Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut
Museum of Fine Arts of St Petersburg, St Petersburg, Florida
Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii
Fogg Museum. Harvard University. Cambridge, Massachusetts
Caramoor Rosen House, Katonah, New York
Cranbrook Educational Community, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Illinois Monument, Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, Marietta, Georgia
Racine Heritage Museum, Racine, Wisconsin
ââBlack Angelââ, Oakland Cemetery (Iowa City, Iowa), Iowa City, Iowa
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
McPhee Memorial, Denver, Colorado
Ezekiel W. Cullen Building, University of Texas, Austin, Texas
Alma Mater statue, Universidad de La Habana, Havana, Cuba (1919)