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Home>Plan Your Visit>Tours, Guides, and Maps>Self-Guided Tours>Audio Stop 407

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Frederic Edwin Church

## *Niagara*, 1857

Niagara by Frederic Edwin Church. Painted in 1857. Oil on canvas. 3 and a quarter feet high by 7 and a half feet wide.This description is just over a minute long.We hover over rushing water near the edge of Niagara Falls in this panoramic view. The so-called Horseshoe Falls curve away from us, so the falls open to our left.  Across from us, the water cascades down, disappearing into a froth of white. A rainbow arcs down from the top left corner of the canvas into the heart of the cascade. The horizon comes two-thirds of the way up the composition so the painting is dominated by the rushing, foaming, sea glass-green water. Streaks of plum-purple clouds sweep in from the upper corners against a violet-colored sky. Closest to us, swirling moss-green water seethes over a rocky plateau, before tumbling over the edge. A dry branch in the left foreground is about to be carried over. Every ripple, eddy, and fleck of white foam is captured. A band of gold-colored trees line the distant horizon. A few buildings are tucked in among the trees to our right, and a lighthouse stands on the shoreline to our left.  

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