Artwork Page for Niagara Falls

Details / Information for Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

1878

William Morris Hunt

(American, 1824–1879)
Culture
America
Medium
charcoal and brush and charcoal wash; framing lines in charcoal
Support
Beige(2) laid paper
Measurements
Sheet: 27.5 x 42.9 cm (10 13/16 x 16 7/8 in.); Image: 26.7 x 42.1 cm (10 1/2 x 16 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Mrs. G. Tappan Francis 1943.326
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

Hunt studied with the famous French painter of peasant scenes, Jean-Francois Millet (1814–1875), and played a major role in introducing the loose brushwork of advanced French painting into American art. In 1878, only a year before his tragic suicide, Hunt visited Niagara Falls. There he produced a remarkable group of pastels, charcoal drawings, and paintings in which the physical particulars of the scene appear to dissolve into a near-abstract pattern of water and mist.
A horizontally oriented charcoal and wash drawing depicts a wide waterfall shrouded in heavy mist. Dark, gestural foliage frames the left side, contrasting with the luminous center where water pours over a ledge. To the right, the falls recede behind dense spray. Gestural lines define a dark shoreline above, while choppy water and rocks fill the foreground. A thin charcoal border and initials ground the composition.

Niagara Falls

1878

William Morris Hunt

(American, 1824–1879)
America

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