Central Park in Winter
1868–94 · Hand-colored lithograph · The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The whole print, uncropped, on a printed cream mat with its title beneath.
Museum-quality archival paper: heavyweight, acid-free, resists yellowing
- Printed to order, arrives in 4–9 business days
- Arrives perfect or we reprint it, free
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About this work
- Artist
- Currier & Ives (firm active 1857–1907 (Nathaniel Currier 1813–1888, James Merritt Ives 1824–1895))
- Year
- 1868–94
- Medium
- Hand-colored lithograph
- Original size
- 21 × 31.5 cm
- Collection
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Movement
- American Folk Art
A full moon breaks through grey clouds over a frozen lake in New York's Central Park, where dozens of small figures skate towards a stone bridge. In the foreground, horse-drawn sleighs race along a snowy carriage road, their passengers wrapped in red and yellow rugs. Snow lies on the evergreens and bare trees that frame both sides of the scene. The print comes from Currier & Ives, the New York firm that sold inexpensive hand-coloured lithographs for the home. Central Park had opened to the public in stages from 1858, and its skating ponds and carriage drives quickly became popular winter subjects for the firm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art dates this small print between 1868 and 1894. It came to the museum in 1962 with the bequest of Adele S. Colgate, together with many other Currier & Ives prints.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Moonlit skaters and racing sleighs in blue-grey, white and touches of red and gold. Hang it in a hallway, study or living room for the holiday season next to Whistler's Nocturne in Grey and Gold: Chelsea Snow, in a black frame.
Size, framing & materials
- Style
- American Folk Art painting
- Era
- 19th century (1868–94)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- dramatic, moody
- Rooms
- living room, hallway or entryway, study or library, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 16×12, 24×18 in — 16×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×18 above a console or sideboard. See it to scale on your wall →
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — dark wood flatters the lighter palette; black sharpens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
- Restored in-house from a scan of the original print, cleaned and colour-trued at museum resolution
- Museum-quality archival paper: heavyweight, acid-free, resists yellowing
- Framed option: wood frame in black or dark wood, 12 mm wide and 22 mm deep, with a plexiglass front and no mat; the print is mounted inside and the frame's outside measures the listed size
- Made to order; colours may vary slightly from screen
