Bessie Potter Vonnoh was one of the most prolific and popular sculptors of genre in the first decades of the 20th Century in America. Her popularity and fame were based on her choice of subject matter---primarily mothers and children at play and in intimate little groupings---rendered in a tender, intimate, engaging, and somewhat nostalgic fashion which made them extremely appealing to the public which loved her wholesome and easily recognizable style. In contrast to the pretentious memorials and elaborate architectural creations of her peers and fellow sculptors working during the same period, Vonnoh like Mary Cassatt was able to sculpt works which exuded a sense of delicate domesticity balanced with the simple joys of motherhood.
Bessie Potter Vonnoh was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1872. About 1890 she traveled to Chicago and apprenticed with Lorado Taft at the Art Institute of Chicago. She later became his assistant and helped him with sculptures that he submitted at the Columbia Exposition of 1893 where she also exhibited some of her own works. At the fair Vonnoh was fascinated with the small figures by the Russian sculptor Paul Troubetzkoy which more than likely inspired her own later varied iterations of mothers and children. In 1894 Potter rented her first studio and said "I left behind me forever the swaddling clothes of art student life and became a professional." And "I invited my girl friends to pose, making little statuettes of them just as they dropped in, dressed in all the incongruities of the day." Her approach was a radical rejection of the classical Greek ideals and instead she sought to capture the everyday beauty of her modern world in modest sizes that she called statuettes. In 1896 she modeled A Young Mother, thought to be one of her first along the mother and children themes. These works won recognition as her Young Mother received a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition of 1895 and again along with Midsummer won honorable mentions at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1898. In 1899 Bessie Potter married the painter Robert Vonnoh. Their time together was marked by one of mutual respect and promotion of one another’s works.
Springtime of Life captures the youthful vitality and innocence central to much of Vonnoh’s work. Depicting a nude adolescent girl with outstretched arms, holding a flower and a shell—symbols of natural beauty and curiosity—the sculpture reflects Vonnoh’s characteristic focus on the harmony and joy of childhood. A rabbit, included in the life-size version but omitted in this reduction, further emphasized the connection to nature and the season of spring. The presence of a hole in the shell suggests this cast was ordered as a working fountain however we have not removed the base to investigate if it’s plumbing remains intact. The composition was later reused in the artist’s multi-figure sculpture In Arcadia.
First exhibited in a large pool in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square, the life-size Springtime of Life earned the prize for Best Single Figure at the 1928 Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition of the Philadelphia Art Alliance. This honor marked a significant moment in Vonnoh’s career, distinguishing the sculpture as one of her few works to receive such public acclaim, despite her broader recognition during her lifetime. The success of this figure signaled a stylistic evolution in her sculpture—toward more elongated, willowy forms that conveyed a heightened sense of movement and grace.
This cast likely dates to shortly after the creation of the large-scale version, which wasn’t completed until around 1926. A plaster version, size unlisted, appeared in the 1988 sale of the Roman Bronze Works Collection. Due to the incomplete foundry records and lack of artist documentation, the total number of casts and their precise production dates remain uncertain. However, the early numbering and possible provenance—acquired by a private owner in 1940—support its authenticity and historical significance.
Private Collection, Chicago (acquired circa 1940)
Private Collection, Chicago