Cottage Life – Summer
Lithographed and published by Currier & Ives American
Published by Nathaniel Currier American
Not on view
In the garden of a substantial country house a woman sits and reads under a tree as two little girls play with dolls and a boy chases a hoop. At right, a man and woman on horseback approach, with a church steeple beyond. The house has a glassed-in porch at left, and open veranda at right.
The New York firm of Currier & Ives grew from a printing business established by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) in 1835. Expansion led, in 1857, to a partnership with brother-in-law James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). The firm operated until 1907, lithographing over 4,000 subjects for distribution across America and Europe with popular categories including landscape, marines, natural history, genre, caricatures, portraits, history and foreign views. Until the 1880s, images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company at home. Thi names of both Nathaniel Currier and Currier & Ives appear on this impression, indicating that it was produced the year their partnership was formed.
