Modern Madonna

Bessie Potter Vonnoh

American Art

On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor

Like her contemporary Mary Cassatt, Bessie Potter Vonnoh favored young children and their mothers as subjects. In this bronze, a mother gazes fondly at the infant she holds close to her heart. Although the work is secular and contemporary in conception, both the theme and Vonnoh's title refer to one of the most powerful traditional religious images. Vonnoh's appealing groups of women and infants, small in scale and delicately modeled, found great favor with the public, particularly after an exhibition of her work at the Brooklyn Museum in 1913 brought her wider public recognition.

ARTIST Bessie Potter Vonnoh, American, 1872-1955

MEDIUM Bronze

Place Made: United States

DATES 1904

DIMENSIONS 15 1/8 x 15 x 8 1/2 in., 19 lb. (38.4 x 38.1 x 21.6 cm, 8.62kg)

MARKINGS Foundry mark inscribed on proper right side of base at back: "Roman Bronze Works N.Y."

SIGNATURE Inscribed along proper left side of base, towards the back: "Bessie Potter Vonnoh. 1904 Copyright No 111"

COLLECTIONS American Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 13.1062

CREDIT LINE Gift of the artist

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Statuette of half-length figure of a woman holding a baby, forms a pyramidal composition; mother holds baby so that it faces frontally and has its infant's head pressed against her proper left cheek; she wears dress with dropped collar and full drapery folds, her hair is gathered into loose bun at top of her head; infant grabs its mother's hand and wears a long dress. Condition: Good, some greenish corrosion in crevices of drapery.

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor

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