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The Great Horseshoe Fall, Niagara
Alvan Fisher (born Needham, MA 1792-died Dedham, MA 1863)
1820
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 34 3/8 x 48 in. (87.2 x 122.0 cm.)
- Culture
- Canada
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
Two scenes by Fisher (this painting and Fisher's A General View of the Falls of Niagara) capture the thrill of visiting Niagara Falls, a site in upstate New York that quickly became a symbol of the continent's epic scale and natural beauty. Tiny figures throw out their arms as if trying to describe to one another the vastness of what they see. Elegant tourists peer decorously across the chasm through opera glasses, while one young lady covers her ears against the stupendous noise. Reckless young men lie on their stomachs, daring one another to draw closer to the rock's edge.Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006
