The Meadow in Springtime – The Twin Lambs
Publisher Currier & Ives American
Not on view
In this rural scene, a ewe and two lambs playfully run in the central foreground approaching a small felled tree at left. More sheep and lambs are clustered here and there across a meadow bordered by trees and a fence at left. In the right background is a farmhouse and barn, with moutains beyond.
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.
