A Modern Madonna

1904

Bessie Potter Vonnoh , Artist Roman Bronze Works, N.Y. , Manufacturer

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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Catalogue Raisonné

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About the Artwork

A mother holds her baby upright, smiling down while the child rests his tiny hand on hers. The dresses worn by mother and child meld together in the artist's fluid modeling of draped textiles. Sculptor Bessie Potter Vonnoh made a special practice of representing women as she saw them, stating that she aimed to "look for beauty in the every-day world, to catch the joy and swing of modern American life."

The affectionately rendered models for this work were Vonnoh's friend the painter Helen Savier DuMond (1872-1968) and Dumond's infant son Joseph (1903-1967). The title suggests that for the artist a modern woman and child deserved the same artistic reverence as a religious subject did for sculptors in earlier times.

Title A Modern Madonna

Artwork Date 1904

Makers Bessie Potter Vonnoh (Artist) American, 1872-1955 (Manufacturer) Roman Bronze Works, N.Y. founded 1899, active 19th-20th century

Medium Bronze

Dimensions Overall: 15 1/4 × 15 1/4 × 8 1/4 inches (38.7 × 38.7 × 21 cm)

Classification Sculpture

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 20.9

Markings

Inscriptions Title is inscribed inside the sculpture, by the artist's hand. Inscribed, lower right back: Roman Bronze Works | N.Y. 1904

Provenance

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph H. Booth;
1920-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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Published References

Bulletin of the DIA 1, no. 8 (1920): p. 125 (ill.).

Arts and Crafts in Detroit 1906-1976. Exh. cat., DIA. Detroit, 1976, p. 104, no. 95 (ill.).

Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women. Exh. cat., Cincinnati Art Museum. Cincinnati, 2008, pp. 130-131, no. 15 (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Bessie Potter Vonnoh; Roman Bronze Works, N.Y., A Modern Madonna, 1904, bronze. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Harman Booth, 20.9.