Niagara
1857 · Oil on canvas · National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
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About this work
- Artist
- Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)
- Year
- 1857
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 101.6 × 229.9 cm
- Collection
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
- Movement
- Hudson River School
The Horseshoe Falls seen from the Canadian brink, the painting's lower edge cut by the lip of the cataract so that the viewer seems to stand in the rushing water with no ground beneath; a rainbow forms in the spray and the far shore is a thin line under a vast sky. Church painted it in 1857, in his thirty-first year, on a canvas more than two metres wide, and exhibited it alone in a New York gallery, where it made his reputation as the leading American landscape painter. One writer that year summed up the response: this is Niagara, with the roar left out. The falls were already the most painted and most visited site in North America, and Church's picture became their definitive image. The Corcoran Gallery bought it in 1876, and it passed to the National Gallery of Art in Washington in 2014.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
The brink of the Horseshoe Falls with a rainbow in the spray and no ground beneath the viewer, a very wide picture for a long wall: over a sofa, long console or dining sideboard at 36×24 in black. White or pale blue.
- Style
- Hudson River School painting
- Era
- 19th century (1857)
- Orientation
- Landscape
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- living room, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 18×12, 24×16, 36×24 in — 18×12 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 24×16 above a console or sideboard; 36×24 as the statement piece above a sofa or headboard.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; oak lightens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is Niagara in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Niagara painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.























