Research post for Cycle of Life: Nathaniel Currier

 This time I would like to research more deeply and look at Nathaniel Currier and his painting about life and death. According to LindaHallLibrary 2022 “Currier was known for creating popular images. He created a company that creating lithography that means printing image technique. In New York he founded company Currier & Ives with James Ives. They creating colourful images, which depict daily life scenes such as “Christmas on the Farm” or Skating in Central Park ,trains ,bridge.  Currier & Ives created over 7000 prints. “I will add below one of these lithographic prints depicting tree of intemperance. On the tree are written words such as: Evil speaking ,Unstable ,Envy, Vice, Malice, Bad Company, Murder, Sorrow. That shows Currier had know something more then other people about life and death. This tree symbol of life depict people in chaos ,the fall of people. 

The tree of intemperance, published by N. Currier, New York, 1849 (colour litho)

Looking deeper I found Life and Age od Man print created by Currier & Ives. This print depict 11 stages of human life from birth up to death. Every figure is related to animal under every single stage.  There is also a text “ stages of man the cradle to the grave ”. That’s only agree me with Currier knowledge about life and death.

Currier & Ives, Life and Age of Man: Stages of Man’s Life From the Cradle to the Grave, c. 1856-1907, lithograph, hand-colored. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division

Going further I found The Drunkard's Progress: From the First Glass to the Grave” this print depict mens trip through alcoholic. It’s showing how in 9 steps go from 1st drink ending on self death. And on the bottom is woman crying with kid. I understand this print too much. 

The Drunkard's Progress: From the First Glass to the Grave. Nathaniel Currier 1846.

To sum up Currier had to know what mean life and death its was really helpful in my project “Cycle of life’ I will freeze for moment for reflection about it.

*Currier is really significant artist as britannica.com states:  "In an era before photojournalism, Currier met the public’s demand for graphic representation of recent events. In 1835 he printed a lithograph, The Ruins of the Merchants’ Exchange, four days after the building burned,"  (Tikkanen, 2024) ) its really fantastic and so impressive, today for many people its normal to see some incident from whole world its really easy and daily. You just need to turn on the phone then turn on internet browser and then you have acces to information from everywhere, befeor smartphones in Currier times it was really amazing to see his works which depics for example incident from diffrent part of country after few days.

 

Ruins of the Merchants’ Exchange N.Y., Currier & Ives D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts

Next I look deeper and i found another interesting story about Nathaniel Currier and his life "While the disaster sent a wave of trepidation across America, it augured a brilliant future for the fledgling printing firm of N. Currier" (Shepley, 2022) Nathanel Currier creadted an article in record time and after that he become fameous artist.

This hand-colored lithograph, first published in 1840, helped launch the career of Nathaniel Currier.

Reference:

           “LindaHallLibrary.” The Linda Hall Library, 2022, www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/nathaniel-currier/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

        Tikkanen, Amy. “Britannica Money.” Britannica.com, 2024, www.britannica.com/money/Currier-and-Ives#ref157427. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.

        Shepley, Genoa . “By Which Melancholy Occurrence: The Disaster Prints of Nathaniel Currier, 1835–1840 - Panorama.” Panorama, 2 Nov. 2022, journalpanorama.org/article/by-which-melancholy-occurrence-the-disaster-prints-of-nathaniel-currier-1835-1840/. Accessed 27 Nov. 2024.