Oil on canvas
Pational Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh. Presented by John S Kennedy 1887 |
With this painting Church returned to the subject which had made his reputation.
His earlier panoramic treatment of the Falls had been exhibited to universal acclaim in 1857.
This work was painted a decade later, on an even larger canvas, in response to a commission for $15,000.
In preparing the work Church used a pencil drawing he had made in October 1856 and a commercial sepia
photograph of Niagara from this well-known viewpoint. The figures silhouetted against the raging torrent may
represent Church's friend Erastus Dow Palmer and Palmer's daughter Madelaine.
> Artist's biography
> View this area on map |
Room 4: Awful Grandeur
Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)