Jessie Wilson, 1912–13
Bronze
Florence Griswold Museum 1977.4.2

Best known for her sculptures of mothers and children, Bessie Potter Vonnoh befriended the family of future president Woodrow Wilson in Old Lyme in 1905, when Woodrow’s wife Ellen Axson first visited to pursue her studies as an artist. Jessie posed for Vonnoh as early as 1909, resulting in a work (unlocated) that Ellen Axson Wilson described as having “a sort of large nobility about it in spite of its small size.” “Of course it is too small to be a real portrait,” Ellen explained to a friend, “but it suggests her, and the lines of her head, neck and shoulders are perfect”—an evaluation that could easily apply to the work seen here.

This statuette dates from 1912, when Jessie posed for Vonnoh during visits to New York for meetings related to her settlement house work. Ellen found the piece “adorable.” Proud of the result, Vonnoh included Jessie Wilson in several exhibitions, including one Ellen arranged at the White House. According to tradition, Vonnoh gave the cast on view here to Florence Griswold, who attended Jessie’s wedding at the White House in November 1913. Following the completion of the bronze Jessie Wilson, Bessie Potter Vonnoh began a marble bust of Jessie in the summer of 1913, the same period in which her husband Robert Vonnoh executed a portrait of Mrs. Wilson and her daughters.