antique prints, maps and watercolors

(Winter Evening) Nathaniel Currier. New York 1854. $3,850.00

click for detailed image CurrierIvesWinterScenery.jpg

“Winter Evening”

Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) was arguably the most famous American lithographer of all time. At the age of fifteen, he was apprenticed to the Pendleton brothers of Boston who had set up the first lithographic establishment in America. Currier's apprenticeship served him well, as he became the largest publisher of lithographs in the world. After his apprenticeship, Currier established his own successful lithography house in New York. The prints he produced prior to his partnership with James Ives are considered some of the very best, due in no small part to the talented artists he hired to create the images he would make into prints. Currier specialized in publishing hand colored decorative lithographic prints, which sold inexpensively to the new American middle class. His prints were meant to be collected and displayed in Victorian homes. The firm was popular and prolific, producing prints that chronicled the history, customs, tastes and lives of 19th century Americans.

Utilizing the lithographic printing method, Currier published works of art that appealed to people from all walks of life and were affordable. These prints were well rendered and attractive, as the firm hired the finest artists of the day, who drew directly into the limestone lithographic printing stones. A single stone could take upwards of a week to prepare and each image was run through the press one by one by hand. After the ink had dried, a print was hand colored in an “assembly line” method by women colorists many schooled in fine art.

This scarce and desirable early lithograph by Nathaniel Currier ranks No 13 in the "Currier and Ives Best 50" image listing.

Framed in period frame measuring 17 3/4 x 21 1/2 inches
Sight 13 x 17 inches.
Very good condition with full original hand color.