Untitled (Figure with Hat)

Copied Unidentified, Untitled (Figure with Hat), late 19th Century or early 20th Century, cast iron, 15 × 7 1⁄2 × 6 1⁄4 in. (38.1 × 19.1 × 15.9 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson, 2016.38.81

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled (Figure with Hat)
Artist
Unidentified
Date
late 19th Century or early 20th Century
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
15 × 7 1⁄2 × 6 1⁄4 in. (38.1 × 19.1 × 15.9 cm)
Credit Line
The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
Mediums Description
cast iron
Classifications
Keywords
  • Figure female — full length
Object Number
2016.38.81
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2016.38.81

Artwork Description

Before the twentieth century, it was common for items rooted in trades and utility, domestic crafts, and decorative or commemorative objects to be recorded as being by “Anonymous,” as if the maker had chosen to have their identity hidden or forgotten. The names and stories of these makers were once known, to those who cared about them, but lost long before any collector or historian took an interest. Also embodied in terms like “anonymous” is a marked distinction between creative makers from poor or working-class communities and their socially empowered, affluent counterparts—for whom records were, almost without exception, better kept.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)