In Arcadia

In Bessie Potter Vonnoh's In Arcadia, a prone youth, propped on an elbow, plays a pipe as a young woman seated by him turns her head to listen. The slender outstretched limbs of the pair form an elegant line, the elongated base of a triangle with the girl's head at its apex. Both figures are loosely and sparsely clad in vaguely classical drapery that, along with the boy's pipe and headband, evoke the mythical Arcadia. Named after a mountainous region of Greece, the notion of Arcadia symbolizes an idyllic, pastoral setting for bucolic love.

In Arcadia is typical of Vonnoh's popular tabletop sculptures of generic figures expressing abstract, often distinctly feminine themes such as motherhood and adolescent reverie. Vonnoh aimed these works to appeal to female as well as male collectors and to fit comfortably into middle-class homes. She modeled her small sculptures in plaster, a soft medium she could mould expressively, and then had them cast in bronze. The patina (surface coloring and gloss) of this medium captures a lively play of light and emphasizes the distinction between rough or highly detailed areas, such as clothing and hair, and smooth, elongated forms, notably the figures' rounded limbs.

Having made a name for herself in the 1890s with her figurines of actual individual women in the elaborate dress of the day, Vonnoh, after the turn of the century, began to show generic figures in timeless classical drapery that revealed more of their bodies. In this work, the figures' relaxed, graceful poses celebrate their innocent freedom from care and from physical as well as social restraint. The decade in which Vonnoh made In Arcadia was one marked by radical new experimentation, challenges to convention, and campaigns for political and sexual liberation. The subtle echoes of current fashions in the loose, clingy short dress worn by the girl and the hairstyles of both hint at a conscious link between Arcadia and the possibilities for America in the 1920s.

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 1990.

Selected Works from the Collections: Two Hundred Years of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 12–August 27, 1997.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1999–May 7, 2000 (in modified form). [exh. cat.]

(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.

A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, November 16, 2002–February 16, 2003.

Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio (organizer). Venues: Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, October 11, 2008–January 11, 2009; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery, Alabama, February 7–May 10, 2009; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 6–September 6, 2009. [exh. cat.]

In Arcadia, Bessie Potter Vonnoh. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, April 1990. Ill. (black & white).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 68; fig. 66, p. 68 (black & white).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 68; fig. 66, p. 68 (black & white).

Aronson, Julie. Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women (exh. cat. Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio). Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2008. Text pp. 190-91, 193, ill. p. 192 (color).