Atropos, One of the Three Destinies, Death, from the Goddesses of the Greeks and Romans series (N188) issued by Wm. S. Kimball & Co.
Medium
Commercial color lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 2 3/4 × 1 1/2 in. (7 × 3.8 cm)
Classification
Prints|Ephemera
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick
Accession Number
63.350.216.188.51
Tags
Art Historical Context
This compact 1889 color lith portrays Atropos, the Fate who severs the thread of life, as part of Wm. S. Kimball & Company’s “Goddesses of the Greeks and Romans” tobacco-card series. Issued during a period when cigarette manufacturers used collectible cards to promote brand loyalty, the image brought classical mythology into everyday American through affordable, colorful prints. Created by the Ketterlinus Lithography Company, the work demonstrates the technical sophistication of commercial color lithography in the late nineteenth century. The medium allowed intricate mythological subjects to ...
About the Artist
William S. Kimball & Company|Ketterlinus Lithography Company
**William S. Kimball & Company**, a pioneering American tobacco manufacturer, was established in 1846 in Rochester, New York, by William S. Kimball and James C. Hart. The firm quickly grew into one of the city's largest employers, particularly of women, producing popular brands like Peerless chewing tobacco, Rigatta and Fireside smoking tobacco, and Vanity Fair cigarettes. Under Kimball's leadersh...