[Currier & Ives]: [After Palmer, Frances Flora Bond]:

$10,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

LOW WATER IN THE MISSISSIPPI. An excellent Currier & Ives Mississippi River scene created just a few years after the Civil War, after an original illustration by the important and prolific artist, Frances Palmer. Though ostensibly presented as a nostalgic representation of the South, a modern interpretation might conclude that it demonstrates a new sense of freedom and independence felt by formerly enslaved people in the first few years of Reconstruction. This image also demonstrates a simple but poignant and even uncomfortable truth about how life on the Mississippi River is contingent upon external circumstances, most notably the whims of the weather. Low Water portrays former slaves dancing merrily outside their cabin, with the plantation house in the deep background, as the great steamship Robert E. Lee and another riverboat roar down the river. The Lee passes by a small barge on which sits a cabin labeled "Grocery." The water here is indeed low, sitting several feet below the top of the riverbank. The sense of celebration among the African-American subjects is palpable. The lithograph is signed "J.M.I. Del." in the image, indicating that James Ives drew the lithograph from Palmer's original artwork. The illustration for this Currier & Ives print was created by the important artist, Frances Flora Bond Palmer. Palmer (1812-1876) was the first woman in the United States to work as a professional artist, and to make a living with her art. She produced more Currier & Ives pri

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