Bessie Potter Vonnoh facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bessie Potter Vonnoh
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Portrait by Robert Vonnoh, 1907
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| Born |
Bessie Onahotema Potter
August 17, 1872 |
| Died | March 8, 1955 (aged 82) |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Sculpture |
| Spouse(s) | Robert Vonnoh (1899–1933, until his death) Edward L. Keyes (1948–1949, until his death) |
| Elected | National Academy of Design (1921) American Academy of Arts and Letters (1931) |
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (born August 17, 1872 – died March 8, 1955) was an American artist. She was famous for making small bronze sculptures. Her art often showed everyday family life and beautiful garden fountains. Bessie wanted her art to show the "joy and swing of modern American life." She looked for beauty in the world around her.
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Bessie's Early Life & Art Training
Bessie Onahotema Potter was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1872. Her father passed away when she was very young. By 1877, Bessie and her mother moved to Chicago.
In school, Bessie loved clay modeling. She decided early on that she wanted to be a sculptor. At age 14, in 1886, she started classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She could afford school because a sculptor named Lorado Taft hired her. She worked for him as a studio assistant on Saturdays. From 1890 to 1891, she studied with Taft at the Art Institute. She completed her sculpture courses there.
First Sculptures & Exhibitions
Bessie became part of a group called the "White Rabbits." These were women artists who helped Lorado Taft. They worked on sculptures for the Horticultural Building. This was for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Bessie also created her own sculpture for the Illinois State Building. It was called Personification of Art.
In 1895, she traveled to Europe. There, she met the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin. Her well-known statuette, Young Mother (1896), used a friend and her baby as models. In 1898, Bessie was asked to create a bust. It was a sculpture of General Samuel W. Crawford. This bust is now at the Smith Memorial Arch in Philadelphia.
In 1899, she married Robert Vonnoh, an impressionist painter. They spent their honeymoon in Paris. At the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, she won a Bronze Medal. This was for her sculpture A Young Mother. She also showed another statuette, Girl Dancing.
Bessie continued to exhibit her art. She showed her work at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. She received an honorable mention for A Young Mother. In 1904, she won a Gold Medal at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. This award was for a group of ten of her sculptures.
Creating Art in Her Studio
In 1903, Bessie and her husband joined other artists. They created a special building in Manhattan for their studios. Around the same time, the Vonnohs started spending summers in Old Lyme, Connecticut. They became important members of the Old Lyme art colony.
Bessie's small sculptures were very popular. They fit well in regular American homes. Many of her works were portraits, like her statue Water lilies (1913). This sculpture was based on the daughter of fellow artists. Bessie wanted to show that small sculptures could be just as beautiful as large ones. She believed you could capture a perfect likeness in a twelve-inch statuette.
In 1912, the New York Times newspaper praised her work. They called her figurines "lovely" and "charming." They admired how she used details from modern clothing in her art. In 1915, Bessie showed her art in the famous Armory Show. She was recognized for her talent. In 1921, she became a member of the National Academy of Design. In 1931, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
In 1933, her husband, Robert Vonnoh, passed away. In 1937, Bessie completed her most famous large sculpture. It was the Burnett Memorial Fountain in Central Park in New York City.
Later Years
After her first husband died, Bessie made fewer sculptures. She married again in 1948 to Dr. Edward L. Keyes, Jr. Sadly, he passed away only nine months later. Bessie Vonnoh died in New York City in 1955, at age 82. She is buried next to her first husband in the Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme, Connecticut.
Gallery
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Enthroned, c. 1897
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Girl Dancing, 1897
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Bessie Potter Vonnoh, Motherhood, 1905
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Bust of U.S. Vice President James S. Sherman, 1911
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In Grecian Draperies, 1913
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In Arcadia, bronze on marble base, 1926
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Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Bird Fountain, Oyster Bay, New York, 1927
Exhibitions of Bessie's Art
- American Women Artists: 1830–1930, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1987
- Four Centuries of Women’s Art, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1990
- Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women, Florence Griswold Museum, 2008
