Bessie Potter Vonnoh

Alt text: Bronze sculpture of a mother with her baby and two daughters

Alt text: Signature detail of a sculpture of a mother with her baby and two daughters

Alt text: Foundry mark detail of a sculpture of a mother with her baby and two daughters

Bessie Potter Vonnoh
American, 1873-1955
Motherhood
Bronze, brown patina
16 1/2 H. x 7 1/2 W. x 8 1/4 D. inches
Signed on base: Copyright 1903 Bessy Potter Vonnoh
Inscribed on base: Roman Bronze Works N.Y.
Inscribed on base: No. III (underlined)

Alt text: underside of bronze sculpture of a baby

Bessie Potter Vonnoh
American, 1872-1955
Bust of a Baby, 1901
Bronze with brown patina
9 H. x 8 W. x 7 D. inches
Signed on rear of base: Bessie Potter Vonnoh
Inscribed: –Model
Inscribed: Roman Bronze Works N-Y-

Provenance:
Private Estate, Atlanta, Georgia
Private Florida collection

Alt text: Bronze sculpture of a mother holding a baby

Bessie Potter Vonnoh
American, 1872-1955
Mother and Child, c. 1920
Bronze, green patina
10 1/8 H. x 3 7/8 W. x 3 5/8 D. inches
Signed and numbered: Bessie Potter Vonnoh / XXII
Inscribed left rear base: Roman Bronze Works N.Y.

Artist Description

Bessie Vonnoh was born in Saint Louis, Missouri on August 17th, 1872. Vonnoh studied at The Art Institute of Chicago with Lorado Taft and worked as one of his assistants for the decorations of the Columbian Exposition in 1893. At the Columbian Exposition Vonnoh was influenced by the work she saw by Paul Troubetzkoy. This lead Vonnoh to focus on subjects of young girls, mothers and children depicted in modern costumes. In 1899 Bessie Vonnoh married the painter Robert Vonnoh after which they settled in New York.

During Vonnoh’s lifetime her work increasingly received public attention and popularity. In 1904 her sculpture, Enthroned, won the Shaw Prize of the National Academy of Design. Then in 1913 the Brooklyn Museum exhibited her work and they still have in their museum collection a number of her works. Vonnoh’s sculptures are in a number of public collections including the Brooklyn Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Brookgreen Gardens, and Carnegie Institute of Chicago.