Machinist's Apprentice

Inscriptions

Signed and inscribed left, on base, chiseled: "EMMA STEBBINS ROME".

Provenance

Private collection, by early 1980s; Sotheby's, New York, Apr. 1998; Conner & Rosenkranz, Apr. 1998; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2000.

Exhibition history

Huntington, NY, Heckscher Museum of Art, Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History, Sept. 28, 2025–Mar. 15, 2026, no cat. no.

Publications

Sarah E. Kelly, “Machinist and Machinists’ Apprentice,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 30, 1 (2004), 10–11 (ill.), https://www.jstor.org/stable/4129901. Karli Wurzelbacher, ed., Emma Stebbins: Carving Out History, exh. cat. (Hecksher Museum of Art, 2025), 22–23, 102, 185, pl. 6 (ill.).

Quick Overview

Artist: Emma Stebbins (American, 1815–1882)
Date: c. 1859
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: 74.9 × 29.9 × 22.9 cm (29 1/2 × 11 3/4 × 9 in.)
Type: Sculpture
Classification: sculpture
Style: Realism
Place: Rome
Department: Arts of the Americas
Credit line: Purchased with funds provided by the Antiquarian Society
Accession no.: 2000.13.2

More by Emma Stebbins in museum collections

Machinist
Emma Stebbins
c. 1859 · Sculpture
Public collection via the Art Institute of ChicagoAT-00001980

Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.