Skip to Content
Closed today, next open Thursday. Closed today, next open Thursday.

Machinist

White marble statue of machinist with hammer, anvil, and cogs.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

Image actions

  • White marble statue of machinist with hammer, anvil, and cogs.

Date:

c. 1859

Artist:

Emma Stebbins (American, 1815–1882)

About this artwork

Emma Stebbins’s subject here is a modern one: an industrial worker and his young apprentice. Having studied Classical art, Stebbins applied its vocabulary and material to new ends. The harmonious, balanced forms depict contemporary men engaged in skilled pursuits that wed intellect and physical labor. Like many 19th-century American artists, Stebbins, born in New York, sought greater opportunity abroad, connecting with a community of female sculptors in Rome in the late 1850s. Denied access to life drawing classes in the United States, she learned to model the human form from the art around her in Europe and from a receptive circle of artists.

Status

On View, Gallery 161

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Emma Stebbins

Title

Machinist

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

c. 1859

Medium

Marble

Inscriptions

Signed left, on base, chisled: "EMMA STEBBINS ROME".

Dimensions

74.9 × 29.2 × 29.2 cm (29 1/2 × 11 1/2 × 11 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the Antiquarian Society

Reference Number

2000.13.1

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/154237/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share