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Subtle Sensibilities

Sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnoh, known for her small bronzes of women and children, was born today.

As a child, Bessie Potter Vonnoh was "enchanted" by the feel of clay. At age fourteen she decided to become a sculptor. Her talent was apparent and her mother actively supported her artistic interest.

When Potter was seventeen she formally enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago, studying painting and modeling classes that she paid for by making portraits. By the time she was nineteen, Potter was steadily exhibiting and selling her work in Chicago shows. She opened her first studio there in 1894, quickly attracting notice with her portrait statuettes of women friends. She was the first woman sculptor to become a permanent member of the National Academy of Design.

Later, bored with commissions for society women, Potter began to compose groups and figures of women and children. Her small bronzes convey an intimacy unlike the grandiose public monuments of her male colleagues. With a subtle, impressionistic style, these works capture an authenticity of feeling for her subject.

Source: Janis Connor and Joel Rosenkrantz. "Bessie Potter Vonnoh," in Rediscoveries in American Sculpture: Studio Works 1893–1939 (Austin: University of Texas, n.d.).

Pictured: Bessie Potter Vonnoh, 1872–1955, In Arcadia, about 1926, bronze on marble base, 12 7/8 x 28 7/8 x 6 5/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase.