John Schutler

American

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In muted blue, yellow, gray, and white against cream-colored paper, this horizontal print shows animals and pale-skinned people gathered around and among a snow-covered house and barn. To our right, the two-story farmhouse is constructed with horizontal, parchment-brown planks, and the structure is cropped by the right edge of the composition. Two women, two men, and a child gather near the darkened, open door of the farmhouse, which is protected by an overhanging roof. One woman standing in the doorway wears a long, cobalt-blue dress with a white apron and bonnet. On her hip, she holds a small child wearing a black garment and a white bonnet. Two men and the other woman stand near the door, and the two men shake hands. At the center of this trio, an older, cleanshaven man with white hair faces us as he shakes hands with a younger man with a goatee, to our left. The younger man and the woman stand with their backs to us, their bodies angled toward the older man. The men wear long black coats, black pants, and dark hats while the woman here wears a long, cranberry-red dress under a black coat and black hat. The adults all smile faintly. A charcoal-gray horse stands alongside the porch to our left, wearing a ring of sleigh bells like a belt. The horse is hitched to a blue sleigh on runners, which has a brown blanket inside. Closer to us, at the center of the composition, two steers, one brown and one black, stand attached to a sled loaded with gray logs. A man stands alongside the logs, looking back toward the farmhouse with his body angled to our right. He wears a blue coat, brown pants, and a gray hat, and holds a tall, thin staff or branch upright with his right hand. On the ground close to us, gray footprints and blue ice spread out in the otherwise pristine snow, and a small black dog walks toward the steers, to our left. Along the left half of the composition and farther back, the barn walls are clad in vertical, oatmeal-brown planks. An open shed is cut off by the left edge of the composition, and it holds what could be a ladder and carriage. Beyond it, there is a fenced in area in front of the barn with two cows, almost a dozen chickens, and a rooster standing in the snow. One door to the barn is open, and hay is piled high inside. A man with his back to us holds a long stick, presumably moving the hay. Two tall, dark gray, bare tree trunks grow in the fenced-in area to our left, and more grow up behind the house to our right. Another pile of hay, taller than the lean-to next to it, is dusted with snow. A snow-covered field beyond the buildings leads back to misty, gray-blue mountains. The hazy sky above has a pale, butter-yellow glow to our right against the ice-blue sky. The print is signed in the lower corners, with “G.H. Durrie 186” to our left and “Jno Schuller Del.” to our right. The work has text printed in the margin beneath the image. The largest text, at the bottom center, reads, “HOME TO THANKSGIVING.” Smaller text above it, immediately under the image, reads, “Entered according to Act of Congress AD 1867 by Currier & Ives in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of N.Y.” Under the main title, it reads, “NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY CURRIER & IVES, 152 NASSAU STREET.”
John Schutler, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, Home to Thanksgiving, 1867, hand-colored lithograph on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.163

Home to Thanksgiving

John Schutler, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1867 · hand-colored lithograph on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.163