Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872–1955)
Cast by Roman Bronze Works (American, founded 1897)
A Young Mother
INV-7112
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872–1955)
Cast by Roman Bronze Works (American, founded 1897)Modeled 1896, cast 1903
A Young Mother
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872–1955) Cast by Roman Bronze Works (American, founded 1897) →bronzemetal
Date
Modeled 1896, cast 1903
Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
34.3 × 32.4 × 39.4 cm (13 1/2 × 12 3/4 × 15 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
William C. Seipp Fund
In A Young Mother, Bessie Potter Vonnoh recast a traditional subject into a modern, lively composition of a woman and child. Impressionist in finish, the sculpture’s surfaces are suggestive and earthy rather than detailed and polished. The woman’s slender features and the lines of her dressing gown evoke a contemporary sitter yet, rather than a portrait, the work offers a broader interpretation of maternal affection.
Raised and trained in Chicago, Vonnoh set up a studio in the city in the mid-1890s, garnering wide acclaim for her sculptures of female figures, whose small scale suited domestic spaces.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Girl Dancing
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872–1955) Cast by Roman Bronze Works (American, founded 1897)
Motherhood
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872–1955) Cast by Roman Bronze Works (American, founded 1897)
In Grecian Draperies
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872–1955) Cast by Roman Bronze Works (American, founded 1897)
Good Night
Bessie Potter Vonnoh (American, 1872–1955) Cast by Roman Bronze Works (American, founded 1897)