Filatrice

Henry Kirke Brown

1850 · Bronze · The American Wing

In the late 1840s Americans developed the industrial means to produce fine art bronzes, relying on European immigrant labor as well as copper and other metals mined from Indigenous homelands. Sculptures modeled and cast in this country were heralded as affordable and democratic, symbolizing independence from European foundries. In 1849 the American Art-Union began distributing statuettes to its subscribers in an annual lottery, increasing public awareness of bronze and situating it within a mass market. Twenty examples of Filatrice (Italian for "spinner") were commissioned for that purpose and cast in Brown’s rudimentary foundry in his Brooklyn studio.

Artist

Henry Kirke Brown

Date

1850

Medium

Bronze

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Purchase, Gifts in memory of James R. Graham, and Morris K. Jesup Fund, 1993