Niagara: View of Horseshoe Falls

Dateca. 1850

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsUnframed: 24 x 34in. (61 x 86.4cm) and Framed: 32 1/4 x 42 1/2in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1958.102.3

DescriptionA view of a towering U-shaped waterfall, the viewpoint from ground level, with a rocky ledge that reaches to the top of the picture plane at far right. The water is a vivid emerald green with white choppy waves, the foam blue with pink tinges. Human figures are shown at upper and lower right and a tower appears in the background near middle left. A small boat plies the water at lower left.

Artist unidentified.

Period replacement 4 1/2-inch splayed gilded frame with flat outer and inner edges and applied foliage decoration in the four corners.
Label TextViews of Niagara Falls proliferated in America during the first half of the nineteenth century. Although most of these were prints made after paintings by established academicians, folk painters also aspired to record the natural wonder and its surrounding rock formations in paint. The Folk Art Center owns other views of the falls, most notably one by Edward Hicks (1780-1849)). The anonymous hand responsible for this view probably was inspired by a print source, but none has been identified yet.
Both the American and Canadian sides of the falls are shown in this picture. Table Rock, which is situated on the Canadian side at upper right, was a favorite viewing area until it fell into the falls in June 1850 [note 2]. On the American side at left, the artist provided an accurate, though stylized, rendering of Terrapin Tower, which was built during the 1840s and served as another popular overlook area. Visitors are shown atop Table Rock and below it in the foreground at lower right. Two of these people wear protective foul-weather gear, which was rented to shield visitors from the damp mists rising from the falls.
Other details of interest that are recorded here include two Maids of the Mist, the first of which was an observation steamboat launched in 1846. The second Maid of the Mist is teh cloud of moisture created by the thundering falls. The latter, like the small boat, derived its name from a local Indian legend [note 1].
ProvenanceJ. Stuart Halladay and Herrel George Thomas, Sheffield, Mass. Halladay died in 1951, leaving his interest in their jointly-owned collection to his partner, Thomas. Thomas died in 1957, leaving his estate to his sister, Mrs. Albert N. Petterson, who was AARFAM's vendor.