Niagara

Louis Rémy Mignot

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

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.

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) 48 3/4 x 91 1/2 in. (123.8 x 232.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Arthur S. Fairchild, 1993.118. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 1993.118_SL1.jpg)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

Niagara

Date

1866

Medium

Oil on canvas

Classification

Painting

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)

Signatures

Signed lower right on rock: "M. / 70"

Credit Line

Gift of Arthur S. Fairchild

Accession Number

1993.118

Rights

No known copyright restrictions

This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

Frequent Art Questions

  • What is this?

    This is a painting of the Niagara Falls by an American artist called Louis Mignot.
    Mignot was showing the Falls from the Canadian side in this painting. Although Niagara was already a very popular tourist destination, Mignot purposely concentrates on the natural spectacle, eliminating tourists, scenic viewpoint stations, the nearby hotels, etc.
    It was painted in 1866, when photography began to really become popular, and when artists started becoming aware about the ways that memories recorded through painting differ from those recorded through photography.

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