NATHANIEL CURRIER
Nathaniel Currier
Birth Year : 1813
Death Year : 1895
Country : US
The lithographic process of printing from a specially prepared stone was
discovered by accident in Munich in 1796 and was introduced to the United States
by Pendleton thirty years later. Nathaniel Currier was apprenticed to this first
American lithographer at about the age of eighteen. Currier went into the
printing business for himself in 1834 and a few years later saw the
possibilities of using lithographed pictures for the news media. His first three
important prints recorded fires, the third showing the 1840 fire on the
steamboat Lexington. However, it was not until 1857, when Currier took James
Ives as a partner, that the real flood of over 5,000 prints began and the
coverage was extended to include news, sports, transportation, patriotic,
juvenile, landscape, and genre subjects. Three new prints appeared each week
until about 1875 when the appearance of illustrated magazines and news photos by
daguerreotype put the partners out of business.
Based upon original drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings, the folios of art
prints reached a level of excellence far beyond that of any of the firm's
competitors. Carefully applied color, fine drawing, solid composition, and
lively, interesting subjects distinguished these Currier and Ives productions.
Nathaniel Currier
Birth Year : 1813
Death Year : 1895
Country : US
The lithographic process of printing from a specially prepared stone was
discovered by accident in Munich in 1796 and was introduced to the United States
by Pendleton thirty years later. Nathaniel Currier was apprenticed to this first
American lithographer at about the age of eighteen. Currier went into the
printing business for himself in 1834 and a few years later saw the
possibilities of using lithographed pictures for the news media. His first three
important prints recorded fires, the third showing the 1840 fire on the
steamboat Lexington. However, it was not until 1857, when Currier took James
Ives as a partner, that the real flood of over 5,000 prints began and the
coverage was extended to include news, sports, transportation, patriotic,
juvenile, landscape, and genre subjects. Three new prints appeared each week
until about 1875 when the appearance of illustrated magazines and news photos by
daguerreotype put the partners out of business.
Based upon original drawings, watercolors, and oil paintings, the folios of art
prints reached a level of excellence far beyond that of any of the firm's
competitors. Carefully applied color, fine drawing, solid composition, and
lively, interesting subjects distinguished these Currier and Ives productions.