Central Park, Winter – The Skating Pond

Central Park, Winter – The Skating Pond

Charles Parsons

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The New York firm of of Currier & Ives (established by Nathaniel Currier, who formed a partnership with his brother-in-law James Merritt Ives in 1857), lithographed 4,300 subjects between 1835 and 1907 for distribution across America and Europe. They offered images of almost everything animal, vegetable, or mineral in the United States, including views of the citizens enjoying their freedoms. The pictures generally were drawn on lithographic stones in outline and, after being printed in monochrome, were hand-colored by women who worked for the firm at home.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Central Park, Winter – The Skating PondCentral Park, Winter – The Skating PondCentral Park, Winter – The Skating PondCentral Park, Winter – The Skating PondCentral Park, Winter – The Skating Pond

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.