Niagara Falls, from the American Side
1867 · Oil on canvas · Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
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About this work
- Artist
- Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900)
- Year
- 1867
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 257.5 × 227.3 cm
- Collection
- Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
- Movement
- Hudson River School
The American Falls seen from below, a wall of water two and a half metres tall on the canvas, crashing into spray through which a rainbow forms. Church based it on a drawing made at Niagara in July 1856 and on a sepia photograph touched with colour. The New York dealer Michael Knoedler commissioned it in 1866, apparently for the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1867, where Church had been chosen to represent American painting; in the end he sent his earlier panoramic Niagara instead. Ten years on from that first picture, this upright composition trades the horizontal sweep for sheer vertical force. In 1887 John S. Kennedy bought it and presented it to his native Scotland, and it remains the only major Church in a European public collection, at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A wall of falling water two and a half metres tall with a rainbow in the spray, a tall vertical for a stairwell, hallway end or double-height wall at 24×36 in black. White, pale grey or deep blue; a bathroom suits it.
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Hudson River School painting
- Era
- 19th century (1867)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- living room, dining room, dorm room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
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 Falls, from the American Side in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was Niagara Falls, from the American Side painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.



























