Karl Gerhardt (1853-1940) was an American sculptor, best known for his death mask of President Ulysses S. Grant and a portrait bust of Mark Twain.

He worked for a spell as chief machinist at the Pratt and Whitney Machine Tool Company in Hartford and pursued sculpting in his leisure hours.

Clemens asked painter James Wells Champney and prominent portrait bust sculptor, John Quincy Adams Ward to evaluate Gerhardt's work.

[3] With the support of Clemens's prominent artist friends, including Ward, Augustus St. Gaudens and Olin Warner, Gerhardt sailed to Paris with his wife in March 1881.

Gerhardt passed the entrance examination to the École des Beaux-Arts on his first attempt and was enrolled in classes by August 1881.

Gerhardt soon requested additional money from Clemens to pay for living models and private art instruction.

[3] In the mid- to late 1880s, Gerhardt received commissions for memorial statues in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, and Pennsylvania.

In 1909, it was reported by the New Orleans Times Democrat that the famous sculptor was struggling financially and working as a manual laborer.