The Filatrice (The Spinner)

1850

Henry Kirke Brown (American, 1814–1886)
Cast by the artist’s foundry
Brooklyn, New York

The woman in Henry Kirke Brown’s sculpture holds a distaff in the crook of her right arm, twisting wool or flax into thread and onto a spindle. This classical portrayal of a domestic task evokes the mythic Three Fates, one of whom spins the thread of life. Brown modeled The Filatrice (Italian for “spinner”) in New York and cast it at the foundry he established there in 1848 after his return from Italy. The Filatrice was commissioned by the American Art-Union, an organization that aimed to bring the fine arts to middle-class audiences. Twenty casts were made of the sculpture and distributed to select members by way of lottery.

Status: On View, Gallery 174
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Henry Kirke Brown (Sculptor)
Title: The Filatrice (The Spinner)
Place: Brooklyn (Object made in:)
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.: 1850
Medium: Bronze
Edition: Edition of 20
Dimensions: 50.8 × 30.5 × 17.8 cm (20 × 12 × 7 in.)
Credit Line: Roger McCormick Endowment Fund
Reference Number: 1989.59
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/73684/manifest.json

“Affairs of the Association,” Bulletin of The American Art Union 3 (July 1850): 51.
“The Return to Be Made to the Members of 1850,” Bulletin of The American Art Union (Sept. 1850): 87–88.
Wayne Craven, “Henry Kirke Brown: His Search for an American Art in the 1840s,” American Arts Journal 4, 2 (Nov. 1972): 52 (ill.).
Marvin D. Schwartz, “It’s Growing! Chicago’s American Wing,” Antiques and The Arts Weekly (June 29, 1990): 1, 76–78 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 171–72, cat. 76 (ill.).

Commissioned by The American Art-Union, New York, 1850. Janis Conner and Joel Rosenkranz, New York, by 1989 [incoming receipt, RX17688, Mar. 10, 1989; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1989.

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.

Suggested Terms

On View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

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.

Medium

Edition

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

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.

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Provenance

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share

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.