Peacock Weather Vane

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1800–60

Artist unknown (American, active 19th century)
Pennsylvania

Early American weather vanes, such as this silhouetted peacock, were collected in the 20th century for their sculptural qualities and celebrated as precursors to modernism. The Art Institute acquired this hand-forged vane from gallerist Edith Halpert, who distinguished herself in the New York art world by focusing on modern American art and vernacular arts from centuries prior. She operated two galleries in the same building: the Downtown Gallery, which focused on modern American art like the painting My Man (1944.426) by Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and the American Folk Art Gallery. Weather vanes were popular among Halpert’s clients; as Time magazine reported, she “busily stripped the New England skyline of more than 100 vanes” for sale to collectors and museums.

Status: On View, Gallery 265
Department: Arts of the Americas

Artist: Artist unknown
Title: Peacock Weather Vane
Place: Pennsylvania (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.: c. 1800–1860
Medium: Pennsylvania Iron
Dimensions: 131.8 × 71.1 × 2.5 cm (51 7/8 × 28 × 1 in.)
Credit Line: Elizabeth R. Vaughan Fund
Reference Number: 1952.549
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/77688/manifest.json

Judith A. Barter and Monica Obniski, “For Kith and Kin: The Folk Art Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago,” (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2012) p. 66, no. 21 (ill.).
Elizabeth McGoey and Elizabeth Siegel, “Photography + Folk Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” The Decorative Arts Trust Magazine (Summer 2019): 17, fig. 7 (ill.).
“Photography + Folk Art: Looking for America in the 1930s,” The Art Institute of Chicago Member Magazine (Fall 2019): 27 (ill.).
Karla Klein Albertson, “Photography + Folk Art,” Antiques and the Arts Weekly, Nov. 19, 2019, https://www.antiquesandthearts.com/photography-folk-art.

New York, Downtown Gallery, American Folk Art Gallery, Masterpieces of American Folk Art, June 12–29, 1951.
Art Institute of Chicago, Mar. 1952.
Art Institute of Chicago, Photography + Folk Art: Looking for America in the 1930s, Sept. 21, 2019–Jan. 19, 2020, no cat.

Private collection, West Chester, PA; “Ekalb” (abbreviation of owner from Downtown Gallery records), CT; with Downtown Gallery, New York, by Nov. 1950 [incoming permanent reciept Rx567, Apr. 1, 1952; copy in curatorial object file]; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1952.

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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.

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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.

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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.