Bessie Springs Smith White (Mrs. Stanford White)
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Bessie Springs Smith White (Mrs. Stanford White)
- Artist: Augustus Saint-Gaudens (American, Dublin 1848–1907 Cornish, New Hampshire)
- Founder: Cast by A. T. Lorme & E. Aubry (American, New York, ca. 1893–1896)
- Date: 1884, cast 1893
- Culture: American
- Medium: Bronze
- Dimensions: Diam. 14 1/4 in. (36.2 cm)
- Credit Line: Gift of Anne Tonetti Gugler, 1981
- Object Number: 1981.55.1
- Curatorial Department: The American Wing
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