THE CONTRAST.

Date1775

MediumEngraving

DimensionsOverall: 10 × 13 7/8in. (25.4 × 35.2cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1960-54

DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "Let us not Cut down the Tree to get at the Fruit./ Let us Stroke and not Stab the Cow; For her Milk, and not her Blood, can give us real Nourishment and Strength."

Commenting on England's reconciliation gestures toward the colonies just prior to the outbreak of hostilities, the designer has chosen as his setting a rural landscape, divided by a stream into two sections in which the alternatives of peace and destruction are symbolically portrayed.
Tied to a stump on the left, a cow, representative of America in both scenes, is being stabbed and tormented by a group of men. On the cow's rump is the official stamp of the Stamp Act. A raven perched in a tree is ready to swoop down for the kill. A cloth placed tent-like over the limb of a tree forms a shelter for some of the assailants. To the rear a man chops down a tree laden with apples.

On the right is a contrasting scene of tranquility. The cow, bedecked with floral garlands, is fed by children as a woman milks it; others dance, play, and partake of milk from the animal. Two love birds are perched high in an apple tree, while a boy picks the fruit and tosses it to a girl on the ground. Behind, two Indians are on a deer hunt.
ProvenanceEx coll: H. Dunscombe Colt. Other known copies in Halsey Collection at Brown, Peel Collection at the Morgan Library; the New York Historical Society, and the New York Public Library Collection.