Sunday Morning – In the Olden Time

This nostalgic genre scene shows a family leaving their home to go to church: a man and woman help an elderly lady down steps so they can approach a waiting horse. A young girl holds up an apple for the horse, while a young boy places a chair beside it so the old woman can climb into the saddle. Through an open wooden gate at the left, people walk on a shaded path towards a church --its steeple visible through the trees in the distance. An excerpt from the poem "Sunday" by the Welsh-born British poet and Anglican priest George Herbert is imprinted beneath the image. This image and accompanying verse reinforce a sense of piety and duty exemplified by this rural community.

Nathaniel Currier, who established a successful New York-based lithography firm 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 the Currier firm's lithographs, such as those featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. To make this lithograph, Nathaniel Currier had copied a popular British mezzotint (dated 1847) by Samuel William Reynolds II after the 1836 painting "Sunday Morning" by William Collins (now in the Tate Museum, London).