Girl Dancing
Artist
Bessie Potter Vonnoh
(American, 1872-1955)
Manufacturer
Gorham Manufacturing Company
(American, founded 1831)
CultureAmerican
DateModeled 1897, cast 1906
MediumBronze
Dimensions14 5/8 × 10 × 8 in. (37.1 × 25.4 × 20.3 cm)
InscribedSigned on base: "Bessie Potter Vonnoh/Copyright/1897/Cire perdue/Gorham Mfg. Co./1906".
Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.
Object number71.3041
Collections
On View
Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 218
Label TextBessie Potter Vonnoh American, 1872–1955 Girl Dancing, modeled 1897, cast 1906 Bronze cast by Gorham Manufacturing Company, Providence, Rhode Island The endless folds of this young woman’s dress create a vibrant textured surface, while the brown tones of the bronze add warmth and life. Like the French sculptor Auguste Rodin, Bessie Potter Vonnoh mastered this medium and created many statuettes of women dancing, reading, and enjoying other fashionably feminine activities. “What I wanted was to look for beauty in the everyday world, to catch the joy and swing of modern American life,” Potter wrote. Girl Dancing was one of her most popular works. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.3041 Exhibition History"Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women," Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, Connecticut, October 11, 2008 - January 11, 2009; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama, February 7 - May 10, 2009; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, June 6 - September 6, 2009. "Women of the Chrysler: a 400-Year Celebration of the Arts," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., March 24 - July 18, 2010. "American Treasures at the Willoughby-Baylor House," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 2 - December 1, 2013. "Get Real: Figurative Sculpture by Women," Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, VA, September 20, 2019 - January 5, 2020.Published ReferencesJulie Aronson, _Bessie Potter Vonnoh: Sculptor of Women_, exh. cat., Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH, 2009, 84 fig. 6, 238 fig. 40a, 241 fig. 41, 243 fig. 42b
