Audio Stop 407

00:00 00:00

We hover over the bottle-green surface of a river as it rushes toward a horseshoe-shaped waterfall that curves away from us in this horizontal landscape painting. The water is white and frothy right in front of us, where the shelf of the riverbed changes levels near the edge of the falls. Across from us, the water is also white where it falls over the edge. A thin, broken rainbow glints in the mist near the upper left corner of the painting and continues its arc farther down, between the falls. The horizon line is just over halfway up the composition. Plum-purple clouds sweep into the composition at the upper corners against a lavender-colored sky. Tiny trees and a few buildings line the shoreline to the left and right in the deep distance.

Frederic Edwin Church

Niagara, 1857

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 71

Read full audio transcript

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.

West Building Verbal Descriptions