Pratt (Bela L.) is born in Norwich, Connecticut.

The son of George and Sarah (Whittlesey) Pratt, Bela Pratt studies at Yale, the Art Students League in New York, in Paris, and with a number of sculptors including Augustus Saint-Gaudens. He marries sculptor Helen Pray, moves to Boston in 1893, and lives at 10 Burr Street. Pratt teaches at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston for 25 years and becomes one of the leading American Beaux Arts sculptors of his time. He dies on May 18, 1917.