Accession # |
1993.118 |
Artist |
Louis Rémy Mignot
|
Title |
Niagara |
Date |
1866 |
Medium |
Oil on canvas |
Dimensions |
frame: 61 1/2 × 104 1/4 × 4 1/2 in. (156.2 × 264.8 × 11.4 cm)
48 3/4 x 91 1/2 in. (123.8 x 232.4 cm) |
Signed |
Signed lower right on rock: "M. / 70" |
Credit Line |
Gift of Arthur S. Fairchild |
Location |
Visible Storage: Case 15, Screen N (Paintings)
|
Curatorial Remarks:
From the eighteenth century on, Niagara Falls was among the most iconic symbols of American might, pride, and cultural identity. Its meaning shifts in this painting by Louis Rémy Mignot, a Southerner and Confederate sympathizer forced to abandon his rising New York career upon the outbreak of the Civil War. Although the composition was likely inspired by his friend Frederic Church’s famous
Niagara (1857), Mignot pointedly chose an atypical view, facing the Canadian, rather than the American, side of the falls. He made one last sketching excursion to Niagara before his departure in 1862 for London, where he completed the work.