Mrs. Stanford White (Bessie Springs Smith)

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

1884, cast 1893 · Bronze · The American Wing

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.

Artist

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

Date

1884, cast 1893

Medium

Bronze

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Anne Tonetti Gugler, 1981