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Henry Schile |
Two children prepare for a ride in a goat-drawn carriage in Central Park, under the supervision of their elegantly dressed mother, who is seated on a brown stone bench. The boy arranges the goat's harness while the little girl waits in the carriage. Beyond them is the stone bridge over the lake. Vivid shades of red, blue, green and gold are set against the browns of the path and background.
Henry Schile was a German immigrant based in lower Manhattan, a prolific producer of colorful lithographs, generally in folio sizes. His favored subjects were genre pictures, people in landscapes and dramatic scenes from American history. He also produced both Christian- and Jewish-themed religious subjects and melodramatic spiritual allegories such as "Hope" as a woman rescued from the ocean by an angel. Another Schile print shows a train "Crossing the Continent." These large prints were presumably designed to be affordable decoration for the middle class, including his fellow immigrants. Several of his prints are in the Prints and Photographs Collection of the Library of Congress.
This print of Central Park in the summer has characteristic Schile subject matter and black margins. He also did a print of Central Park in the winter showing skaters on a pond and a horse-drawn sled.
Condition: Generally very good with only minor wear and toning.
References:
Peters, Harry T. America on Stone. U.S.: Doubleday, Doran, 1931. pp. 358-359.
"Prints & Photographs Online Catalog." Library of Congress. 23 January 2004. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/pgahtml/pgaAuthors08.html (23 February 2004).