Niagara

Imagine thousands of people lining up and paying to see a SINGLE painting! Such was the draw of Frederic Edwin Church’s works. He traveled to remote places and made monumental paintings showcasing the grandeur and majesty of nature. People rarely appeared in his paintings, and, if so, they were dwarfed by magnificent mountains and dramatic waterfalls. Raw nature was on display and viewers were enthralled. 

Church was a key figure in the Hudson River School, which was founded by Thomas Cole (who mentored Church). Initially these artists focused on the Catskill and Adirondack Mountain region in upstate New York. Church also traveled to more exotic places like South America to explore and make sketches that would subsequently lead to full-scale paintings. The magnitude of the canvases was a key element—how better to feel immersed in a scene than by gazing at a monumental painting—yet there was precise detail in the renderings. Characteristic of luminist works, lighting is an important element in Church's paintings as well as the smooth application of paint with no visible brushstrokes. 

Church painted three views of Niagara Falls; this view from the Canadian side of Horseshoe Falls is his most famous. Church was not the first artist to capture the power and splendor of Niagara Falls, but this was the largest and most dramatic rendition. The unconventional horizontal canvas, which is twice as wide as high, affords a sweeping panoramic view of the falls. Lowering the plane of the falls near the viewer reveals more of the downward rush of the falls, and eliminating the foreground gives the viewer the sensation of being directly (and precariously) at the edge of the churning water. All that is missing is the roar of the falls. 

Exhibited at a gallery in New York City, Niagara drew 100,000 visitors within two weeks. Church, already acclaimed, became a celebrity.

- Martina