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| Church, Niagara Falls, 1857, Corcoran |
Frederic Edwin Church’s Niagara Falls is located in the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Completed in 1857, this painting is a massive and realistic representation of one of North America’s natural wonders—Niagara Falls. Up close, the exquisite detail used by Church shows that this piece could only be painted after one actually experiences the falls. Similar to the technique used by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, every detail on the immense canvas has been treated equally because each part of the painting is important and adds to the powerful experience of the falls. From the blue pink mist coming up from the falls to the textured white caps of the water’s waves, every detail has been captured. Perhaps the emphasis on all aspects of the painting reflects the belief that Americans had been chosen to settle in this country. In addition, it further illustrates the power of the falls and how they should be preserved. This was a concern of Church’s, and as a result, he met with Canadian government officials to talk about the possibility of turning the area into a national park so that it could be protected.[1]
Church’s depiction of the falls emphasizes their sublimity. Although he is an American painter, instead of painting the American Falls, he decided to paint the Horseshoe Falls, located in Canada, because they are considerably larger.[2] As a result, his painting is more impressive and sublime than previous representations of the subject because he chose to paint the most monumental fall. Through his painting, the viewer is able to see the greatness of the falls without actually experiencing any danger because they are positioned in a way that makes them feel like they are about to fall in. Everything in the painting seems to go towards the approaching drop of the falls. In the bottom left, a tree branch hovers near the edge. This drop is large, and many people have died attempting to go over the falls. The danger that lies in the powerful drop combined with the painting’s large size truly makes this a sublime subject. Edmund Burke’s treatise on the sublime, from 1757, creates another category of art for things that are neither beautiful nor ugly. The sublime is a term reserved for art that goes beyond these categories like Church’s Niagara Falls, as the viewer is able to experience the greatness of the subject without actually being there.
*Picture: http://www.corcoran.org/collection/highlights_main_results.asp?ID=51
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