The Four Seasons of Life – Old Age "The Season of Rest"

Over the centuries, the seasons have been used as a natural metaphor for the cyclical nature of life. After the disruption of the American Civil War, Currier & Ives produced a series of prints, titled "The Four Seasons of Life," which offered promising images of family contentment, prosperity and serenity. These sentimental images of "Childhood," "Youth," "Middle Age, and "Old Age" (the last one shown here) represented the ideals of daily life in rural, middle class America.

In this cozy, well-furnished interior with a fire blazing in the fireplace, an elderly couple sit in armchairs beside their grandaughter, who is perched on a stool with an open book on her lap. At the center of the room, a cat sits on the carpet besides a table covered in a red cloth. A wintry outdoors with a sleigh is visible through the window in the background. Two four-line stanzas of a verse are imprinted beneath the image: "Last comes the winter of Life's circling year, / And strength departs, but love and joy abide; / That 'perfect love' which 'casteth out all fear'/ That joy, that lives beyond life's restless tide./ Grateful for mercies past, and trusting still/ in Him whose goodness all our lives hath blest; /We rest secure, and calmly wait His will, / To call us hence, to His eternal rest." With "Old Age" and winter being life's final season, the grandparents appear content with their fate and with the knowledge that the little girl represents the coming spring.

Nathaniel Currier, whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law) was made a business partner; subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued until 1907.