Frederic Edwin Church: Niagara

Frederic Edwin Church - Niagara, 1857
oil on canvas

Among all the scenic wonders of the New World, one was foremost in the minds of nineteenth-century Americans: Niagara Falls. First visited by European explorers in the late seventeenth century, the cataracts had come to symbolize for many Americans the power and vitality of their new nation. Citizens of the New World were eager to prove their equality to the Old World in all things, and Niagara was judged to be as good as or even better than anything Europe could offer in the way of spectacular scenery (Franklin Kelly).

(Corcoran)