Niagara
Louis Rémy Mignot
American Art
On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Trouble the Water
From the eighteenth century on, Niagara Falls was among the most iconic symbols of American might, pride, and cultural identity. Its meaning shifts in this painting by Louis Rémy Mignot, a Southerner and Confederate sympathizer forced to abandon his rising New York career upon the outbreak of the Civil War. Although the composition was likely inspired by his friend Frederic Church’s famous Niagara (1857), Mignot pointedly chose an atypical view, facing the Canadian, rather than the American, side of the falls. He made one last sketching excursion to Niagara before his departure in 1862 for London, where he completed the work.
MEDIUM
Oil on canvas
DATES
1866
DIMENSIONS
frame: 61 1/2 × 104 1/4 × 4 1/2 in. (156.2 × 264.8 × 11.4 cm)
48 3/4 x 91 1/2 in. (123.8 x 232.4 cm) (show scale)
SIGNATURE
Signed lower right on rock: "M. / 70"
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
1993.118
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Arthur S. Fairchild
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Trouble the Water
CAPTION
Louis Rémy Mignot (American, 1831–1870). Niagara, 1866. Oil on canvas, frame: 61 1/2 × 104 1/4 × 4 1/2 in. (156.2 × 264.8 × 11.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Arthur S. Fairchild, 1993.118 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1993.118_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 1993.118_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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