Bessie Potter Vonnoh
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (born August 17, 1872 in St. Louis , Missouri , † March 8, 1955 in New York City ) was an American sculptor. She was known for her garden fountains and for her small bronze statues, which mostly depicted scenes from home.
Life
Bessie Potter was born in St. Louis in 1872 to Alexander and Mary McKenney Potter. Her father died in an accident in 1874 at the age of 38. She moved with her mother to Chicago to live with her mother's family.
During her school days she learned modeling with clay and developed the desire to become a sculptor at an early age. In 1886 she took classes at the Art Institute of Chicago . She could only afford these lessons because on Saturdays she could work as a studio assistant for the sculptor Lorado Taft . From 1890 to 1891 she studied sculpture with Taft at the Art Institute.
First work
Bessie Potter was one of the sculptors group White Rabbits on, an association of artists who Taft at its sculpture program for the Horticulture Building (Horticultural Building) in 1893 at the World's Columbian Exposition helped. At the same time, she was working on sculptures for the personification of art on the Illinois State Building of the exhibition.
She traveled to Europe in 1895 and met Auguste Rodin there . Another member of the White Rabbits Margaret Daisy Gerow Proctor and her young son were models for her most famous statue, the Young Mother, from 1896 . She received the commission for the bust of General Samuel W. Crawford for the Smith Memorial Arch in Philadelphia in 1898.
Marriage to Robert Vonnoh
Potter married the painter Robert Vonnoh in 1899 . The couple went on their honeymoon to Paris .
The New York Times wrote in March 1903 that a dozen painters and sculptors had come together with the Vonnohs who had erected a building specially for their artist studios at 27 West Sixty-Seventh Street in Manhattan.
In mid-1903, the Vonnohs moved to Old Lyme , Connecticut and became members of the Old Lyme Art Colony .
At the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 she was awarded the bronze medal for her statue Young Mother , as well as for her statue Dancing Girl . She exhibited both statues in 1901 at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo and in 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. There she won a gold medal for a group of ten works.
In December 1912, the New York Times reported on her work at the New York Academy of Art . She described her statues as lovely , with a charming style, and further: "We have to applaud once again her skilful harmonization of the details of the contemporary costumes, her choice of the most significant line for emphasis."
Vonnoh exhibited on the Armory Show in 1915 . She was elected an Academician of the National Academy Museum and School in 1921 , and of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1931 .
Later years
Her husband Robert Vonnoh died in 1933 at the age of 75.
Her most famous large-scale work, the Frances Hodgson Burnett Memorial in Central Park, was completed in 1937. After that, she created only a few other works of art.
Bessie Potter Vonnoh married Dr. Edward L. Keyes, a widower who died nine months later. She died in New York City in 1955. Bessie Potter Vonnoh was buried at the side of Robert Vonnoh in the Duck River Cemetery in Old Lyme.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Julie Aronson: Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women , Ohio University Press, pages 7 ff, 2008, ISBN 978-0-8214-1800-0
- ↑ Bessie Potter Vonnoh papers, circa 1860-1991, bulk 1890-1955 , accessed May 22, 2017
- ^ Benjamin Genocchio: In Her Hands, Naturalism Won Out , 2008, NYT , accessed May 22, 2017
- ↑ Crawford bust
- ↑ A MARRIAGE OF ARTISTS .; Miss Bessie Potter Quietly Wedded to RW Vonnoh, NYT, 1899 , accessed May 22, 2017
- ↑ A NEW HIVE OF ARTISTS .; Studios Built by a Dozen Painters to Suit Themselves - Practical Side of the Sixty-seventh St. Building, NYT, 1903 , accessed May 22, 2017
- ^ The New York Times: Streetscapes: 27 West 67th Street; An Artists' Co-op, Put Up for Art's Sake, September 10, 1995. Retrieved May 23, 2017
- ↑ Deceased Members . In: American Academy of Arts and Letters . Archived from the original on July 26, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
- ↑ Robert Vonnoh, Noted Hartford Artist, Dies, The Hartford Courant, 1933 , accessed May 22, 2017
- ↑ Mrs. Bessie P. Vonnoh a Bride . In: New York Times , June 27, 1948.
- ^ Edward Loughborough Keyes, Jr., Papers: Part 2 (special collections) . Georgetown University . Archived from the original on March 22, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
- ↑ Bessie P. Yonnoh, Sculptor, Was 82; Widow of Dr. Edward Keyes Is Dead - Her Works Won Many Medals in Shows . In: New York Times , March 9, 1955.
Web links
- Bessie Potter Vonnoh in the database of Find a Grave (English)
- Bessie Potter Vonnoh Papers Online in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Potter Vonnoh, Bessie |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American sculptress |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 17th August 1872 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Louis , Missouri |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 1955 |
| Place of death | New York City |