The Pleasures of the Country – Sweet Home
Publisher Currier & Ives American
Not on view
In this rural scene, a mother and baby relax under a large tree near a country house with a dog, as a man stands behind, and two children play with another dog in the driveway.
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.
