Brooklyn Museum: American Art: Niagara

15:18 11/15/2008

When I sit and look at this painting I seem to hear and smell the rushing water.

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Niagara

Throughout the nineteenth century, few landscape forms were more immediately recognizable as American than Niagara Falls. The image of Niagara was often employed in art and literature to embody the natural might that underlay the nation's promise and destined greatness. A southern-born artist, Louis Rémy Mignot painted this view Niagara after he had moved to London during the Civil War. Before leaving the United States in 1862, he had sketched at Niagara Falls, perhaps with the idea of exhibiting an ambitious canvas before an English audience.

In this large panorama, Mignot's acknowledged masterpiece, the view is taken from the American side of the great Horseshoe Falls, facing the Canadian shore. The artist dispensed with the traditional framing devices typical of landscape imagery, forcing the viewer close to the precipice to experience the massive currents of foaming water rushing over the cataract's edge in the fading lavender light of sunset.

Artist: Louis Rémy Mignot, American, 1831-1870
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dates: 1866
Dimensions: 48 3/4 x 91 1/2 in. (123.8 x 232.4 cm)
Signature: Signed lower right on rock: "M. / 70"
Collections: American Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, American Landscape, 5th Floor
Accession Number: 1993.118
Credit Line: Gift of Arthur S. Fairchild
Rights Statement: No known copyright restrictions
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Caption: Louis Rémy Mignot (American, 1831-1870). Niagara, 1866. Oil on canvas, 48 3/4 x 91 1/2 in. (123.8 x 232.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Arthur S. Fairchild, 1993.118
Image: overall, 1993.118_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don't yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

Record Completeness: Best (83%)
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Collections: American Art: Niagara