Farm and Fireside
Publisher Currier & Ives American
Not on view
This country scene represents a woman and girl feeding chickens outside their kitchen door, with a blazing hearth inside and another girl setting the table. Horses graze at left, a man carries a basket from a wagon, and three farmhands work in a field 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 at home.
