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Bessie Potter Vonnoh American, 1872-1955
Description
- Bessie Potter Vonnoh
- A Mother and Child
- signed and dated: Bessie Potter Vonnoh / 1902
- bronze, dark brown and green patina, on roughly hewn peach marble base
Catalogue Note
"What I wanted was to look for beauty in the everyday world, to catch the joy and swing of everyday life." Bessie Potter Vonnoh 1925
The fluid and impressionistic forms of Potter Vonnoh's sculptures resonate with the influences of Rodin and the Russian-American sculptor Troubetzkoy. However, she brings to her mostly female subjects a tranquility and tenderness particularly her own. She is best known for her groups of mothers with children, most of which were modelled between 1896 and 1903. Although not meant as portraits, these groups were based on a particular family Potter Vonnoh knew in Rockland Lake, New York and she has perfectly captured the informality and naturalism of their everyday life.
The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, has the largest collection of her works, whilst other models are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Cincinnati Art Museum.
RELATED LITERATURE
Conner & Rosenkranz (1989), p. 161-167; American Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 558-565; American Sculpture 1845-1925 (2001) pp. 26-27