Niagara
1857
Painter, American, 1826 - 1900
Niagara, located on the homeland of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), is among the greatest natural wonders of North America. Beginning in the late 17th century, the site became a popular but challenging subject for European artists. An ambitious painter, Church was sure he could capture the power and beauty of Niagara Falls.
In this view of the sweeping expanse of Horseshoe Falls, Church plunges us directly into the rushing water. His detailed painting combines frothing waves and water sheeting over rock surfaces. As one writer described the painting in 1857, “This is Niagara, with the roar left out!”
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 71
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 101.6 × 229.9 cm (40 × 90 1/2 in.)
framed: 164.5 × 286.4 × 17.8 cm (64 3/4 × 112 3/4 × 7 in.) -
Accession
2014.79.10
More About this Artwork
Article: The 19th-Century Blockbuster: Frederic Edwin Church’s “Niagara”
The American artist, skilled at both painting and publicity, created a sensation similar to the social media–famous exhibitions of today.
Video: Frederick Douglass and the Visual Arts in Washington, DC
Sarah Cash, associate curator, Department of American and British Paintings, National Gallery of Art, speaks with Ka’mal McClarin, museum curator, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Collection, National Park Service, about Frederick Douglass's involvement in the visual arts.
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Sold 1857 by the artist to (Williams, Stevens & Williams, New York); forfeited to (Brown Brothers Bankers, New York); (sale, Exhibition to Benefit the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, Tiffany & Co., New York, December 1861);[1] purchased by John Taylor Johnston, New York; purchased 1876 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] Jeremy Elwell Adamson, “Frederic Edwin Church’s ‘Niagara’: The Sublime as Transcendence,” 3 vols., Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1981, believes there to have been an as-yet unidentified owner between the Brown Brothers and Johnston, but cites no evidence for this claim beyond a letter from Church to MacLeod, 11 January 1877, which makes no such assertion. Adamson believed that Niagara was purchased by this unidentified owner from the bank for $5,000. This is the amount Church believed Johnston paid for the painting.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1857
Tenth-Street Studio Building, New York, May 1857, no. cataogue.
Williams, Stevens and Williams, New York, May 1857, unnumbered catalogue, as The Great Fall, Niagara.
Lloyd's Gallery, Gracechurch Street, London, June-August 1857, no catalogue.
1858
German Gallery, London, April-May 1858, no catalogue.
James McClure and Son Gallery, Glasgow, June 1858, no catalogue.
Manchester, England, June-July 1858, no catalogue.
Mr. Grundy’s Gallery, Church Street, Liverpool, July 1858, no catalogue.
Williams, Stevens & Williams, New York, September-December 1858, no catalogue.
Samson Cariss and Co., Baltimore, December-December 1858, no catalogue.
Washington, D.C., December 1858-January 1859, no catalogue.
1859
Hall of the Mechanics’ Institute, Richmond, January-January 1859, no catalogue.
Armory Hall, New Orleans, March-May 1859, no catalogue.
Williams, Stevens & Williams, New York, July 1859, no catalogue.
Williams and Everett’s Gallery, Boston, December 1859-February 1860, no catalogue.
1860
Messrs. James S. Earle & Sons, Philadelphia, 28 February 1860, no catalogue.
Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, 11 October 1860, no catalogue.
1861
Tiffany Exhibition (To benefit the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor), Old Dusseldorf Gallery, New York, 1861-1862, no catalogue.
1864
Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Fair, in Aid of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, New York, 4 April 1864, no. 14.
1867
Exposition Universelle, United States Section, Class 1: Paintings on Canvas, Paris, 1867, no. 8.
First Winter Exhibition, Including the First Annual Collection of the American Society of Painters in Water Colors, and the Works from the American Art Department of the Paris Universal Exposition, National Academy of Design, New York, November 1867-March 1968, no. 646.
1870
Second Annual Exhibition of the Yale School of the Fine Arts, Founded as a Department of Yale College, by the Late Augustus Russell Street, of New Haven, Conn., Yale School of Fine Arts, New Haven, 1870, no. 52.
1874
Exhibition of Paintings, Engravings, Drawings, Aquarelles, and Works of Household Art, in the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition, Cincinnati, 1874, no. 132.
1876
New York Centennial Loan Exhibition, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, July 1876, no. 102.
John Taylor Johnston's Collection, National Academy of Design, New York, November-December 1876, no. 147.
1900
Paintings by Frederic E. Church, N.A., Special Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1900, unnumbered catalogue.
1915
Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915-1916, no. 2935.
1940
Survey of American Painting, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1940, no. 97.
1949
De Gustibus: An Exhibition of American Paintings Illustrating a Century of Taste and Criticism, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949, no. 12.
1957
Painting in America: The Story of 450 Years, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1957, no. 106.
1962
American Painting, 1857-1869, Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts, Delaware Art Center, 1962, no. 13.
1964
Three Centuries of Niagara Falls, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, 1964, no. 23.
1966
Frederic Edwin Church, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington; Albany Institute of History and Art; M. Knoedler and Company, New York, 1966, no. 39 (shown only in Washington).
1970
19th-Century America: Paintings and Sculpture, An Exhibition in Celebration of the Hundredth Anniversary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, no. 105.
1971
The Beckoning Land: Nature and the American Artist: a Selection of Nineteenth Century Paintings, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, April-June 1971, no. 49.
The Natural Paradise: Painting in America, 1800-1950, Museum of Modern Art, New York, October-November 1971, unnumbered catalogue.
Wilderness, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 9 October - 14 November 1971, no. 62 (organized by the National Endowment for the Arts).
1976
Corcoran [The American Genius]. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue.
The Natural Paradise: Painting in America, 1800-1950, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1 October - 30 November 1976, no. 23.
1978
The American Landscape Tradition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 31 January - 31 August 1978, no catalogue.
1979
Close Observation: Selected Oil Sketches by Frederic E. Church, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; University of Pittsburgh Art Gallery; Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita State University; University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor; Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Brunnier Gallery, Iowa State University, Ames; Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, Missouri; Cooper-Hewitt Museum, New York, 1979, not in catalogue (shown only in Washington).
1983
A New World: Masterpieces of American Painting 1760-1910, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Grand Palais, Paris, 1983-1984, no. 38.
1985
Niagara: Two Centuries of Changing Attitudes, 1697-1901, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; New-York Historical Society, 1985-1986, no. 49.
1987
American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1987-1988, unnumbered catalogue, repro.
1989
Frederic Edwin Church, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1989-1990, no. 30.
1998
New Worlds From Old: 19th Century Australian and American Landscapes, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1998-1999, no. 73, repro.
2002
American Sublime: Landscape Painting in the United States, 1820-1880, Tate Britain, London; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2002, unnumbered checklist (shown only in Philadelphia).
2005
Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 26.
2008
Nature as Nation: 19th-Century American Landscapes from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 30 August 2008 - 18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.
2009
American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June - 18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.
2013
American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.
2020
Alexander von Humboldt and the United States: Art, Nature, and Culture, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, 2020-2021, no. 94, repro.
Bibliography
1882
Macleod, William. Catalogue of the Paintings, Statuary, Casts, Bronzes, &c. of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1882: 56, no. 81, as Niagara Falls.
1887
Macleod, William. Catalogue of the Paintings, Statuary, Casts, Bronzes, &c. of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1887: 57, no. 81, as Niagara Falls.
1947
Corcoran Gallery of Art. Handbook of the American Paintings in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1947: 41, as Niagara Falls.
2003
Kugler, Richard C. "William Bradford." In William Bradford: Sailing Ships and Arctic Seas. Exh. cat. New Bedford Whaling Museum, 2003: 21-22, 24, 32.
Kornhauser, Elizabeth Mankin. "'All Nature Here is New to Art' Painting the American Landscape in the Nineteenth Century." In Hudson River School: Masterworks from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Exh. cat. Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 2003: 12, repro.
2004
Manoguerra, Paula A. "A Felicity of Taste or Nature." In Classic Ground: Mid-Nineteenth Century American Painting and the Italian Encounter. Exh. cat. Georgia Museum of Art, 2004: 82-83, repro.
2005
Wallach, Alan. "Some Further Thoughts on the Panoramic Mode in Hudson River School Landscape Painting." In Phillip Earenfight and Nancy Siegal. Within the Landscape: Essays on Nineteenth-century American Art and Culture. Carlisle, 2005: 99-105, repro., color repro plate 13.
Avery, Kevin. Treasures from Olana : Landscapes by Frederic Edwin Church. Exh. cat. Olana State Historic Site, Hudson, NY, 2005: 35, color repro., 36 n. 26.
Howat, John K. Frederic Church. New Haven, 2005: 67, 71-74, 79, 88, 118, 128, 134, 186, 189, 190, repro.
Cornell, Daniel. In Masterworks of American Painting at the De Young. Edited by Timothy Anglin Burgard. San Francisco, 2005: 105, 107, 109, repro.
Bjelajac, David. American Art : A Cultural History. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2005: 215, 217, repro.
2006
Ellegood, Anne. The Uncertainty of Objects and Ideas: Recent Sculpture. Exh. cat. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, 2006: 99, color repro.
Rosenbaum, Julia B. Visions of Belonging: New England Art and the Making of American Identity. Ithaca and London, 2006: 82-83, repro., 87.
Simon, Janice. "'Impressed in Memory': John Frederick Kensett's Italian Scene. In Niagara Falls: An Intimate Portrait. Guilford, 2006: 69-72, color repro., 151 n. 19.
Davidson, Gail. "Landscape Icons, Tourism, and Land Development in the Northeast." In Barbara Bloemink et. al. Frederic Church, Winslow Homer and Thomas Moran: Tourism and the American Landscape. Exh. cat. Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, 2006: 13-18, repro.
2007
Davidson, Susan, ed.. Art in America : 300 years of innovation.Exh. cat. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, 2007: 120-121, color repro.
2008
Barber, John. The Road from Eden: Studies in Christianity and Culture. Palo Alto, 2008: 417 repro., 420-422.
2009
Moore, Charlotte Emans. "Art as Text, War as Context: The Art Gallery of the Metropolitan Fair, New York City's Artistic Community, and the Civil War." Ph.D. diss. Boston University, 2009: xx, 90, 129, 329, 374, 386, 414, 450 (note 164), 456-459, 479, 494, 504, 523, 622, fig. 6-3.
2010
Galandi-Pascual, Julia. New Topographic:Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape. Freiburg, 2010: 169, color repro.
Morden, Barbara C. John Martin : apocalypse now!. Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2010: x, 96, color repro.
2011
Cao, Maggie M. "Heade's Hummingbirds and the Ungrounding of Landscape." American Art 25, no. 3 (Fall 2011): 50-51, repro.
Kelly, Franklin. "Frederic Edwin Church, Niagara." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 30, 109, 112-115, 117, 263, repro.
Perry, Clair. The Great American Hall of Wonders: Art, Science, and Invention in the Nineteenth Century. Exh. cat. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, 2011: 63-65, 69, 188, 196-197, 208, repro. 64-65.
2016
Zambello, Francesca. "Creating the World of the Ring." Playbill for Richard Wagner: The Ring of the Nibelung (Washington National Opera, 2016). New York, 2016: 12, color repro.
2024
Conlin, Jonathan. The Met--A History of a Museum and Its People. New York, 2024: 16.
Inscriptions
lower right: F.E. Church / 1857
Wikidata ID
Q16680559