Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

ca. 1860
Joachim Ferdinand Richardt
Danish, active in the United States, 1819–1895
Oil on canvas
56 x 35 1/8 in. (142.24 x 89.22 cm)

On view in the American Art before 1900 galleries

Joachim Ferdinand Richardt, a native of Denmark, was already a formally trained artist when he first came to the United States in 1855. He painted a wide range of American landscapes but was most drawn to the grandeur of Niagara Falls. This scene, depicted from the American side, is perhaps the largest and most impressive of Richardt’s many paintings of the falls. While some contemporaries romanticized their depictions of the majestic site by minimizing the human presence, Richardt accurately portrayed the numbers of tourists. The advent of the railroad increased access to Niagara, so that by 1850 the falls saw 80,000 visitors a year. Scores of tiny figures can be seen in Richardt’s painting both in the foreground and on Goat Island, the tree-covered strip of land marking the boundary between the United States and Canada. 

2014.122.1
Yale University Art Gallery, Gift of the Manoogian Foundation in honor of Helen A. Cooper, M.A. 1975, Ph.D. 1986