“Their roar is around me. I am on the brink of the great waters—and their anthem voice goes up amid the rainbow and the mist.” —Excerpt from “Niagara,” Grenville Mellen, 1839
In the 19th century, realistically painted works of the Romantic period offered viewers in America, and across the Atlantic, the chance to glimpse the grandiosity of some of North America’s mightiest natural landmarks. Master painters such as Frederic Edwin Church chose spectacular sites such as Niagara Falls to depict the essential divinity inherent in the natural world.
America found a significant part of its young identity in these majestic places and the paintings that they inspired. Romanticist artists devoted themselves to capturing nature’s grandeur through the theatrically dramatic use of light, color, composition, and minute detail. In this noble effort, artists like Church sought not only to paint beautiful landscapes, but also to imbue their works with the sublimity of the Creator: the source who breathes life into the natural wonders the artists chose to depict….