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Bessie Potter Vonnoh
1872–1955
BirthplaceSt. Louis, Missouri, United States of America
Death placeNew York, New York, United States of America
BiographyIn an era when women sculptors were rare, Bessie Potter Vonnoh made a successful career creating small-scale sculptures of domestic and feminine subjects. Potter was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but was raised in Chicago by her widowed mother. As a child she delighted in modeling figures in clay, and her mother encouraged her artistic interests. At the age of fourteen she met Lorado Taft (1860–1936), Chicago's premier sculptor, who had just concluded several years' study in Paris. Taft became Potter's friend and mentor and invited her to use his studio. In 1889, she enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago, studying there formally with Taft until 1892.
Potter was one of a group of young women artists Taft invited to work alongside him on sculptural decorations for the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. At the fair, the intimate, spontaneously modeled cast-bronze works of Russian-Italian sculptor Paulo Troubetskoy (1866–1938) inspired Potter to create her own figurines. In 1894 she opened a studio that soon became a gathering-place for a circle of important Chicago artistic, literary, and intellectual figures known as the "Little Room." Potter found a lively market for her small portrait busts and figurines of society women in the elaborate fashions of the day, which she both modeled and cast in plaster. In 1895, she visited the New York studio of important sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) and then traveled to Paris to meet famed artist Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), who had forged a new naturalism in the medium of cast bronze. Potter also was influenced by the expressive style and domestic themes of French sculptor Jules Dalou (1838–1902).
After a visit to Florence, Italy, in 1897, Potter began to have her plaster sculptures reproduced in marble or cast bronze, and shifted to domestic subjects featuring generic mother-and-child groupings, dancing female figures, dreamy adolescent girls, and children. After the turn of the century, she increasingly portrayed them in vaguely classical garb rather than contemporary dress. Her works were widely exhibited and well received, winning numerous awards. With her marriage in 1899 to landscape and portrait painter Robert Vonnoh, the sculptor moved to New York City. Sharing a studio, the Vonnohs critiqued each others' work and exhibited together frequently. They maintained homes in the artists' colonies in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and in Grez-sur-Loing, a village not far from Paris. In 1921 Bessie Potter Vonnoh was elected to full membership in the prestigious National Academy of Design.
Vonnoh received several important commissions for large-scale works and memorial and portrait pieces, but continued to produce sculptures on domestic subjects in both her accustomed table-top scale and in larger sizes for display in parks and gardens. With her husband's death in 1933, Vonnoh gradually ceased sculpting. She remains far less known today than during her heyday in the first three decades of the twentieth century.
Potter was one of a group of young women artists Taft invited to work alongside him on sculptural decorations for the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. At the fair, the intimate, spontaneously modeled cast-bronze works of Russian-Italian sculptor Paulo Troubetskoy (1866–1938) inspired Potter to create her own figurines. In 1894 she opened a studio that soon became a gathering-place for a circle of important Chicago artistic, literary, and intellectual figures known as the "Little Room." Potter found a lively market for her small portrait busts and figurines of society women in the elaborate fashions of the day, which she both modeled and cast in plaster. In 1895, she visited the New York studio of important sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) and then traveled to Paris to meet famed artist Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), who had forged a new naturalism in the medium of cast bronze. Potter also was influenced by the expressive style and domestic themes of French sculptor Jules Dalou (1838–1902).
After a visit to Florence, Italy, in 1897, Potter began to have her plaster sculptures reproduced in marble or cast bronze, and shifted to domestic subjects featuring generic mother-and-child groupings, dancing female figures, dreamy adolescent girls, and children. After the turn of the century, she increasingly portrayed them in vaguely classical garb rather than contemporary dress. Her works were widely exhibited and well received, winning numerous awards. With her marriage in 1899 to landscape and portrait painter Robert Vonnoh, the sculptor moved to New York City. Sharing a studio, the Vonnohs critiqued each others' work and exhibited together frequently. They maintained homes in the artists' colonies in Old Lyme, Connecticut, and in Grez-sur-Loing, a village not far from Paris. In 1921 Bessie Potter Vonnoh was elected to full membership in the prestigious National Academy of Design.
Vonnoh received several important commissions for large-scale works and memorial and portrait pieces, but continued to produce sculptures on domestic subjects in both her accustomed table-top scale and in larger sizes for display in parks and gardens. With her husband's death in 1933, Vonnoh gradually ceased sculpting. She remains far less known today than during her heyday in the first three decades of the twentieth century.