1882-1954
Korbel began his training in sculpture during his youth in Bohemia where he learned to carve decorative sculpture. He came to America in 1900, where he lived and worked in Chicago, but he returned to Europe five years later to study in Paris at the Academie Julian and in Munich to study at the Royal Academy.
He returned to Chicago in about 1909 and began executing his first professional commissions including a monument to Karel Jonas, the Bohemian patriot, for the city of Racine, Wisconsin. In 1913, Korbel moved to New York where he established a studio on Washington Square and began exhibiting his sculptures at the Reinhardt Gallery. His first solo show, held at the Gorham Galleries in 1917, featured almost sixty sculptures, mostly small, classicizing plaster and bronze female figures and fountain groups.
One of his early works was a monumental statue of Alma Mater for the National University in Havanna, Cuba, a commission which resulted from Korbel's presence in that country during his honeymoon in 1917. In 1922, art patron and owner of the Detroit News, George G. Booth, commissioned him to execute several classicizing garden figures and Korbel returned to his native country for a time and established a studio in Prague for the purpose of carving the Booth figures. Commissions for similar pieces for other American estates soon followed.
Following his divorce in 1924, Korbel spent the next several years traveling. He spent several summers in Paris and also to Cuba where he executed several portrait and fountain commissions. Back in New York in 1927, he received the patronage of William Ziegler, Jr. an executive for General Foods, who commissioned portraits and garden figures from Korbel. A large retrospective exhibition of fifty-seven of his works was held at Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, in 1929.
In portraiture, Korbel designed several reliefs depicting members of the Cullen family for the Cullen Administration- Auditorium Building at the University of Texas, Austin. His bust of the violinist Fritz Kerisler is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and his life-size nude bronze, Night (1933), is at Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina.
Korbel's work periodically appeared in National Acdemy exhibitions beginning in 1934. He was a member of the National Scultpure Society and the Architectural League of New York.
He returned to Chicago in about 1909 and began executing his first professional commissions including a monument to Karel Jonas, the Bohemian patriot, for the city of Racine, Wisconsin. In 1913, Korbel moved to New York where he established a studio on Washington Square and began exhibiting his sculptures at the Reinhardt Gallery. His first solo show, held at the Gorham Galleries in 1917, featured almost sixty sculptures, mostly small, classicizing plaster and bronze female figures and fountain groups.
One of his early works was a monumental statue of Alma Mater for the National University in Havanna, Cuba, a commission which resulted from Korbel's presence in that country during his honeymoon in 1917. In 1922, art patron and owner of the Detroit News, George G. Booth, commissioned him to execute several classicizing garden figures and Korbel returned to his native country for a time and established a studio in Prague for the purpose of carving the Booth figures. Commissions for similar pieces for other American estates soon followed.
Following his divorce in 1924, Korbel spent the next several years traveling. He spent several summers in Paris and also to Cuba where he executed several portrait and fountain commissions. Back in New York in 1927, he received the patronage of William Ziegler, Jr. an executive for General Foods, who commissioned portraits and garden figures from Korbel. A large retrospective exhibition of fifty-seven of his works was held at Jacques Seligmann & Co., New York, in 1929.
In portraiture, Korbel designed several reliefs depicting members of the Cullen family for the Cullen Administration- Auditorium Building at the University of Texas, Austin. His bust of the violinist Fritz Kerisler is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and his life-size nude bronze, Night (1933), is at Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina.
Korbel's work periodically appeared in National Acdemy exhibitions beginning in 1934. He was a member of the National Scultpure Society and the Architectural League of New York.
