ID: 700000530 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700000530	Record Type: Movable Work

The Falls of Niagara (oil painting (visual work); Edward Hicks (American, 1780-1849); ca. 1825; Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, New York state, U...; 62.256.3)

Note: Hicks visited Niagara Falls in 1819, but he based this composition on a vignette of the falls from a map of North America published by Henry S. Tanner in 1822. As seen from the Canadian side, the falls are replete with the moose, beaver, rattlesnake and eagle, all traditional emblems of North America. The long poem inscribed around the picture is an excerpt from Alexander Wilson's "The Foresters" that originally appeared as a serial in the Philadelphia periodical "The Port Folio" in 1809–1810 and was reprinted at Newtown, Pennsylvania in 1818. Another version of this subject by Hicks was painted in 1835 (Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia).

Titles:

The Falls of Niagara (preferred,C,U,D,RP,English-P,U,P)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

oil painting (visual work) [300033799] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by material or technique>, paintings (visual works), <paintings by material or technique>)

Classifications:

paintings (preferred)

Creation Date: ca. 1825

Creator Display:

Edward Hicks (American, 1780-1849) [preferred,VP]

painter Hicks, Edward (American painter, 1780-1849) [500022183]

Locations:

Current: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York City, New York state, United States) [500125157] Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: 62.256.3

Credit Line: Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1962

Display Materials: oil on canvas

	oil paint (paint) [300015050]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>, paint (coating), <paint by composition or origin>)

	canvas (textile material) [300014078]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by form>, <materials by physical form>, <fiber and fiber by product>, <fiber by product>, textile materials, <textile materials by process or technique>)

Dimensions: 80 x 96.5 cm (31 1/2 x 38 in.)

Cultures:

American (preferred)

General Subject:

landscapes (preferred)

Specific Subjects:

	Niagara Falls [7014230]
	.....(North and Central America (continent), World (facet)) (TGN)

	poetry [300055931]
	.....(Associated Concepts Facet, Associated Concepts (hierarchy name), <concepts in the arts and humanities>, <genres in literature and performing arts>, <genres for literature>, <poetry and poems>) (AAT)

	The Foresters [901002045]
	.....((Literary works: Poetry, Named written and performed works, Literature and Performing Arts)) (ICON)

	A New American Atlas [700009379]
	.....(A New American Atlas (multiples) [700009379], Conceptual Works by class: for movable works [700009507], Conceptual Works [700008707]) (CONA)

Provenance: long poem inscribed around the picture is an excerpt from Alexander Wilson's "The Foresters": [along the border]: The / Falls / of / Niagara / 18 / 25 / With uproar hideous' first the Falls appear, / The stunning tumult thundering on the ear. / Above, below, where'er the astonished eye / Turns to behold, new opening wonders lie, / This great o’erwhelming work of awful Time / In all its dread magnificence sublime, / Rises on our view, amid a crashing roar / That bids us kneel, and Time's great God adore.

Inscriptions: Indiana art market; with Argosy Gallery, New York, 1957; Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Cambridge, Maryland, 1957–1962

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: drawings, paintings, prints, other two-dimensional media

Sources and Contributors:
The Falls of Niagara	........ [VP]
	........ Metropolitan Museum of Art [online] (2001-) accessed 22 May 2012

Subject: ....... [VP]

Note:
English	..... [VP]
	..... Metropolitan Museum of Art [online] (2001-) accessed 15 March 2018, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11080