Paul Wayland Bartlett (1865-1925) was a sculptor and portraitist. Born in Connecticut and raised in France, Bartlett attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts and also studied under Emmanual Frémiet and Auguste Rodin. His early sculpture focused on animals and his piece Bear Tamer was presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1891 and exhibited in the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. After 1895, he produced a number of public monuments, sculptures, and historical portraits, including the figures of Columbus and Michelangelo for the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress, the Lafayette statue presented to France, and the pediment for the House wing of the U.S. Capitol.