Niagara (Frederic Edwin Church)

1857 painting by Frederic Edwin Church

Niagara

Artist| Frederic Edwin Church
Year| 1857
Medium| oil on canvas
Dimensions| 101.6 cm × 229.9 cm (40.0 in × 90.5 in)
Location| Corcoran Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
The final study for the painting. Horseshoe Falls, Niagara, 1856–57, oil on two pieces of paper, 29.2 × 90.5 cm. Olana State Historic Site[1]

Niagara is an oil painting produced in 1857 by the American artist Frederic Edwin Church. Niagara was his most important work to date, and confirmed his reputation as the premier American landscape painter of the time.[2] In his history of Niagara Falls, Pierre Berton writes, "Of the hundreds of paintings made of Niagara, before Church and after him, this is by common consent the greatest."[3]

## Background[edit]

The Falls were commonly painted, being such an attraction to landscape artists that, writes John Howat, they were "the most popular, the most often treated, and the tritest single item of subject matter to appear in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European and American landscape painting".[1] Moreover, the public was captivated by the natural wonder of the Falls, considered a landmark of the North American landscape and a major tourist destination. It was the "Honeymoon Capital of the World", and prints of Niagara were given as wedding gifts. In the 1850s, Niagara was the subject of millions of stereographs, and its image could be found on wallpaper, china, and lampshades, among other consumer items.[4] In 1853, a 1600-foot moving panorama of Niagara Falls was exhibited in New York City.[2]

For Americans, the Falls symbolized the grandeur and expansionism of the United States. David C. Huntington, whose writing on Church in the 1960s revived interest in the painter, explained how Americans, in an era of spiritual optimism and manifest destiny, would have perceived such a vivid painting of Niagara, with all that it symbolized:

> Church presented his fellow-men with the "soul" and "spirit" of Niagara, this "most suggestive" of nature's spectacles: this archetype of the universe. Niagara is the substance of a great American metaphor; indeed, for its original viewers, a certain something more than a metaphor.... Nature and its Bible, the Science of Design, would unfold the transcendent truth of the universe to the New Chosen People in the New World. Nature in the Era of Manifest Destiny was prophecy, and Church as the "interpreter" of Niagara was therefore painting as American prophet. Niagara is the American's mythical Deluge which washes away the memory of an Old World so that man may live at home in a New World. The painting is an icon of psychic natural purgation and rebirth. Poetically a New World emerges as the waters of a flood subside. The rainbow, sign of the "God of Nature's" covenant with man, transfixes the beholder.... Niagara is a revelation of the cosmos to each and every man. Before this greatest of American landscapes the self-reliant, democratic American becomes his own prophet: he stands and sees as a New Noah. Thus through the work of art did Mr. Church help his fellow-men to discover themselves in their New World.[5]

Church studied Niagara Falls extensively leading up to 1857, making dozens of pencil and oil studies. In 1856 Church visited the Falls for probably the fifth time.[1] His teacher Thomas Cole had also visited the Falls. A writer in Art and Artists in Connecticut (1879) reported that the painting itself took about six weeks and that Church used two similar canvases simultaneously: a "draft" upon which he tested a painting idea, and the final canvas, to which he transferred the results he found satisfactory.[1]

## Description[edit]

Church's painting is of Horseshoe Falls, the largest and most iconic of Niagara's three waterfalls. With a width of 2.3 metres (7 ft 7 in), it is more than twice as wide as it is high. The canvas's unusual proportions allowed him to paint a panoramic view from the Canadian side of the falls; the composition leads the eye laterally. The vantage point was dramatic and unique, leaving behind the "canonical banality" of many other paintings before it,[6] the merely picturesque, and immersing the viewer directly in the scene, as if airborne or even in the water. The lack of a repoussoir aids this effect. Before the advent of modern photography, which made such images common, this was a revelation.[3]

Niagara is highly naturalistic, more so than Church's previous The Andes of Ecuador (1855), and shows the influence of John Ruskin's aesthetics on Church.[7] Church brings the viewer to the lip of the falls, highlighting the impressive drop by painting in streams of water and cloudy mists.[8] The only foreground object is a floating tree trunk, which might be confused for a branch but for its roots, providing a sense of scale. The white foam near the trunk has some build-up of paint on a canvas that is otherwise smooth. The foam might suggest that the tree is caught on an unseen rock; there is ambiguity in whether this location is a small respite of stability or highlights the imminent danger of reaching the fall's edge.[9]

Church's extensive study of the falls allowed him to capture the effect of mist and turbulent water with unprecedented realism. The light creates a partial rainbow beyond the precipice, whose arc is strong where the mist is thick, and absent elsewhere, a highly realistic rendering and a technical achievement.[10] Distant on the horizon are a number of buildings, including Terrapin Tower, on the platform of which stands a tiny person.[11]

The painting accumulated damage over time, requiring Church to repaint some of it in 1886. He re-worked the sky so that it was more unified with the water, "more subservient to the cataract", but felt limited in the changes he could make by the many copies of the popular Niagara that existed at that point, in engraving and chromolithography.[12]

## Exhibition and legacy[edit]

Church developed Niagara with public exhibitions in mind. Between May 1 and 29, 1857, tens of thousands paid 25 cents to view the painting—which was greatly praised by local critics—in a darkened Manhattan gallery in which only the painting was illuminated.[7] Some would spend an hour in front of the painting: "Spectators forgot that they were looking simply at pigment ... The painting became the surrogate of a visit in person to the site."[13] Many artists, writers, and politicians reportedly visited the painting's exhibition, including Horace Greeley, Henry Ward Beecher, George Bancroft, George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana, and Fitz James O'Brien.[13] Over a thousand subscriptions to a planned chromolithograph were sold; $30 for an artist's proof and $15 for a print, both in color.[4] Harper's magazine called Niagara "more widely known and admired in this country than any other picture ever painted in America".[14]

The painting was shown in England and Scotland in the summer of 1857. After a showing in London, a chromolithograph was made by Day & Son in June, followed by more exhibitions in Glasgow, Manchester, and Liverpool. London's Art-Journal wrote, "No work of its class has ever been more successful: it is truth, obviously and certainly. Considered as a painting, it is a production of rare merit: while admirable as a whole, its parts have been carefully considered and studied; broadly and effectively wrought, yet elaborately finished."[6][15] Famed art critic John Ruskin was impressed, as reported by Church's friend Bayard Taylor: "The exhibitor told me that Ruskin had just been to see it, and that he had found effects in it which he had been waiting for years to find." Ruskin was said to have marvelled at the rainbow, believing at first that the play of light through a window was projected onto the canvas.[10] In September 1858 Niagara returned to the United States, where, after another New York showing, it travelled to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Richmond, and New Orleans.[4] Cosmopolitan Art Journal wrote, "The reputation of this work has greatly increased by its English tour. It is now regarded as the finest painting ever executed by any American artist."[15] Another exhibition in New York followed. Niagara was exhibited at the 1867 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where it won a silver medal[4] and improved the European view of American art. Harper's Weekly wrote, "The European critics declared that the 'Niagara' gave them an entirely new and higher view both of American nature and art.[16]

This study for Under Niagara (1862) is similar in composition to the lithograph of the lost painting.

Church's composition was the first painting from the Hudson River School to be an "instant success".[16] It was uniquely realistic and "without 'manner'", marking the beginning of a new era for Hudson River artists,[16] such as Jasper Francis Cropsey, Martin Johnson Heade, John Frederick Kensett, Albert Bierstadt, and Régis François Gignoux.[6] Heade especially took to Niagara, which may have influenced some of his choices in canvas size. He wrote, "Church's picture ... far exceeds my expectations; & I don't wonder that Ruskin, after looking at it for half an hour, could only utter 'marvelous'. I look upon it as the most wonderful picture I ever saw."[17]

Niagara was sold to the New York art dealers and print sellers Williams, Stevens & Williams—where it was first exhibited—for US$4,500 in 1857, including $2,000 for reproduction rights.[3] It was acquired at auction in 1861 by the businessman John Taylor Johnston for US$5,000, and then bought at auction in 1876 by William Wilson Corcoran for his Gallery for $12,500, then a record for a painting by an American artist.[3] When the Corcoran closed in 2014, its collection was transferred to the National Gallery of Art, also in Washington, D.C.

Church made two more finished paintings of the Falls. Under Niagara (1862) is now lost, but survives in lithographs, including an overpainted lithograph at Olana. It was a 4-by-6 foot painting said to be completed in a day.[18] The third painting, Niagara Falls, from the American Side, was made in 1867 and is the largest of Church's paintings by surface area.

## See also[edit]

* List of paintings by Frederic Edwin Church
* An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara, 1762 painting

## References[edit]

Notes

1. ^ a b c d Howat, 69–72
2. ^ a b Avery, Kevin J.; Pataki, George E. (2005). Treasures from Olana: Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church. Cornell University Press. pp. 35–36. ISBN 978-0801444302..
3. ^ a b c d Berton, 73–77
4. ^ a b c d Raab, 38–41
5. ^ Huntington, David C. (1966). The Landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church: Vision of an American Era. George Braziller. p. 71\. LCCN 66-16675.
6. ^ a b c Metropolitan Museum of Art, 243–246
7. ^ a b Avery, 21–22
8. ^ Revie, Linda L. (2006). The Niagara Companion: Explorers, Artists, and Writers at the Falls, from Discovery through the Twentieth Century. Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 51\. ISBN 978-0-88920-635-9.
9. ^ Raab, 24
10. ^ a b Lee, Raymond L.; Fraser, Alistair B. (2001). The Rainbow Bridge: Rainbows in Art, Myth, and Science. Penn State Press. pp. 92–94. ISBN 978-0271019772.
11. ^ Raab, 25–26
12. ^ Raab, 42–43
13. ^ a b Huntington, David C. (1983). "Frederic Church's Niagara: Nature and the Nation's Type". Texas Studies in Literature and Language. 25 (1): 100–138. JSTOR 40754705.
14. ^ Raab, 30
15. ^ a b Howat, 73–74
16. ^ a b c Rodriguez Roque, 42
17. ^ Stebbins, Theodore E.; Comey, Janet L.; Heade, Martin Johnson; Quinn, Karen E. (2000). The Life and Work of Martin Johnson Heade: A Critical Analysis and Catalogue Raisonné. Yale University Press. pp. 21–22. ISBN 978-0300081831.
18. ^ Kelly, 61

Sources

* Avery, Kevin J. (1993). Church's Great Picture, the Heart of the Andes. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780810964518.
* Berton, Pierre (2011). Niagara: A History of the Falls. Doubleday Canada. ISBN 978-0-385-67365-5.
* Howat, John K.; Church, Frederic Edwin (2005). Frederic Church. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0300109887.
* Kelly, Franklin (1989). Frederic Edwin Church. National Gallery of Art. ISBN 978-0874744583.
* Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. (1987). American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780870994975.
* Raab, Jennifer (2015). Frederic Church: The Art and Science of Detail. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300212860.
* Rodriguez Roque, Oswaldo (1987). "The Exaltation of American Landscape Painting". In Metropolitan Museum of Art (ed.). American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School. Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780870994975.

## External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sketches of Niagara Falls by Frederic Edwin Church.

* Niagara at the National Gallery of Art

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Frederic Edwin Church

Paintings|

* List of works
* The Andes of Ecuador (1855)
* Niagara (1857)
* The Heart of the Andes (1859)
* Twilight in the Wilderness (1860)
* The Icebergs (1861)
* Cotopaxi (1862)
* Aurora Borealis (1865)
* Niagara Falls, from the American Side (1867)
* The Parthenon (1871)
* El Khasné, Petra (1874)
* The Aegean Sea (c. 1877)
* El Rio de Luz (1877)

Collaboration paintings|

* Arch of Titus (1871)

Museums|

* Olana State Historic Site

Related|

* Hudson River School
* Luminism

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Hudson River School

Movements|

* Age of Enlightenment
* Romanticism
* Victorianism / Realism

Artists|

* Charles Baker
* William Bliss Baker
* John Dodgson Barrow
* Susie M. Barstow
* Julie Hart Beers
* Albert Fitch Bellows
* Albert Bierstadt
* James Renwick Brevoort
* Alfred Thompson Bricher
* William Mason Brown
* Johann Hermann Carmiencke
* John William Casilear
* Frederic Edwin Church
* Thomas Cole
* Samuel Colman
* Jasper Francis Cropsey
* William Moore Davis
* Lockwood de Forest
* Thomas Doughty
* Robert S. Duncanson
* Asher Brown Durand
* Hermann Fuechsel
* Sanford Robinson Gifford
* Régis François Gignoux
* Eliza Pratt Greatorex
* Daniel Charles Grose
* James McDougal Hart
* William Hart
* William Stanley Haseltine
* Martin Johnson Heade
* Hermann Ottomar Herzog
* Thomas Hill
* Ransome Gillett Holdridge
* George Inness
* David Johnson
* John Frederick Kensett
* Robert G. L. Leonori
* Edmund Darch Lewis
* Homer Dodge Martin
* George McCord
* Jervis McEntee
* Mary Blood Mellen
* Louis Rémy Mignot
* Charles Herbert Moore
* Thomas Moran
* Evelina Mount
* William Sidney Mount
* Harriet Cany Peale
* William Trost Richards
* Ferdinand Richardt
* Thomas Prichard Rossiter
* Francis Augustus Silva
* William Louis Sonntag Sr.
* James Augustus Suydam
* Jesse Talbot
* William Guy Wall
* Mary Josephine Walters
* Paul Weber
* Robert Walter Weir
* Worthington Whittredge
* Alexander Helwig Wyant

Museums|

* Metropolitan Museum of Art
* Wadsworth Atheneum
* National Gallery of Art
* New-York Historical Society
* Cooper Hewitt
* Newington-Cropsey Foundation
* Tuscaloosa Museum of Art
* Brooklyn Museum

Locations|

* Catskill Mountain House
* Crawford Notch
* Croton Point Park
* Ever Rest
* Kaaterskill Clove
* Kaaterskill Falls
* Kaaterskill High Peak
* Lake Mohonk
* North–South Lake
* Olana
* Platte Clove
* Rip Van Winkle Bridge
* Storm King Mountain
* Thomas Cole National Historic Site
* Hyde Park

Works|

* Among the Sierra Nevada
* The Catskills
* The Course of Empire
* The Heart of the Andes
* The Icebergs
* Kindred Spirits
* Niagara
* The Oxbow
* The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
* A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie
* Twilight in the Wilderness

Niagara Falls

Geographic features|

* Horseshoe Falls
* American Falls
* Bridal Veil Falls
* Table Rock
* Niagara Gorge
* Niagara River
* Niagara Whirlpool
* Goat Island
* Terrapin Point
* Luna Island
* Dufferin Islands
* Niagara Glen
* Niagara Falls State Park
* Whirlpool State Park
* Niagara Escarpment and biosphere reserve

Attractions|

| Tourism|

* Cave of the Winds
* Table Rock Welcome Centre
* Maid of the Mist
* Hornblower Cruises
* Journey Behind the Falls
* Prospect Point Observation Tower
* Niagara Gorge Discovery Center
* Niagara Scow
* Skylon Tower
* Clifton Hill
* Niagara SkyWheel
* Queen Victoria Park
* Whirlpool Aero Car
* Bird Kingdom
* Aquarium of Niagara
* Marineland of Canada
* Niagara Parks Butterfly Conservatory
* Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center
* United States Post Office
* Fort Niagara
* Niagara Falls City Hall

|

Hotels|

* Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort
* Tower Hotel
* Hilton Niagara Falls Tower 2
* Crowne Plaza
* The Niagara

|

Transportation|

* Niagara Parkway
* Niagara Scenic Parkway
* Rainbow Bridge
* Niagara Falls station (Ontario)
* Niagara Falls station (New York)
* Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge (defunct)
* Niagara Falls Transit Terminal
* WEGO (Niagara Falls)
* Niagara Region Transit
* Lewiston–Queenston Bridge
* Falls Incline Railway
* Honeymoon Bridge (defunct)
* Niagara Gorge Railroad (defunct)
* Niagara Cantilever Bridge (defunct)
* Niagara Clifton Bridge (defunct)
* Niagara, St. Catharines and Toronto Railway (defunct)

Culture|

* Winter Festival of Lights
* USS Niagara Falls
* Niagara
* Superman II
* Wonderfalls
* An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara (1762 painting)
* The Falls of Niagara (c. 1825 painting)
* Niagara (1857 painting)
* Niagara Falls, from the American Side (1867 painting)
* Niagara Movement
* Battle of Lundy's Lane
* Niagara Falls International Marathon
* Niagara Falls peace conference
* Niagara Falls, or Does It?
* Frozen Niagara Falls
* Niagara (board game)

Organizations|

* Niagara Parks Commission
* Niagara Parks Police Service
* New York State Park Police
* Niagara County Community College

Related|

* List of people who have gone over Niagara Falls
* List of Niagara Falls hydroelectric generating plants
* Adam Beck Stations
* Robert Moses power plant
* List of people from Niagara Falls, New York
* Niagara Falls, New York
* Niagara Falls, Ontario
* City Council
* Erie Stone
* Lelawala
* 12382 Niagara Falls (minor planet)

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