Mrs. Stanford White (Bessie Springs Smith)

Augustus Saint-Gaudens American
 Cast by A. T. Lorme & E. Aubry American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 774

Saint-Gaudens frequently experimented with the size, format, and medium of his works, often driven to further refine completed compositions. The sculptor revised the original marble rectangular portrait of Bessie Springs Smith White (1862-1950) (1976.388) to a bust-length tondo format, relocating the inscription and adding an ivy-vine border alluding to affection and friendship. This bronze cast was in fact a gift of friendship to Mary Lawrence Tonetti, who was one of Saint-Gaudens’s studio assistants during the 1890s and a distant cousin of the sitter.

Mrs. Stanford White (Bessie Springs Smith), Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire), Bronze, American

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Mrs. Stanford White (Bessie Springs Smith), Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire), Bronze, American
Mrs. Stanford White (Bessie Springs Smith), Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire), Bronze, American

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