Niagara, a monumental painting by Frederic Edwin Church, is an oil-on-canvas masterpiece that depicts the Great Falls of Niagara with impeccable accuracy. It was created in 1857 and is widely regarded as the greatest landscape painting of its era. Church’s artwork captures the essence of Niagara Falls’ sublimity in a way that had previously been thought impossible. Thanks to this work, Frederic Edwin Church is recognised as America’s leading landscape painter of his time.
Church was known for his panoramic landscapes, and he used framing, scaling, and omission techniques to emphasise the supremacy of nature over human civilisation. This masterpiece immortalises Niagara Falls while also demonstrating the beauty and power of natural phenomena. The Scottish National Gallery has another Hudson River School painting entitled Niagara Falls from a different angle.